


Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons

by glimmerFae (verfens)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Blackwatch existed too but...also not like how it was, First chapter is a contained story if you're not interested in mcr76, M/M, Mc76 Secret Santa, Memory Loss, Overwatch existed but not like how it was, Recovery, and the omnic crisis lasted almost 30 years
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2019-09-27 07:33:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 41,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17157887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verfens/pseuds/glimmerFae
Summary: Jesse McCree, after 10 years of military experience he can't talk about 'cause it was Black ops, is working out of his old co-founder of Deadlock's Western styled Oddity store as a florist.  If it wasn't the only thing keeping him afloat, he would say it was ridiculous to the point of being the biggest, worst cosmic joke in history.  Life doesn't suck, but he hardly feels like his whole hearts really in it anymore.And then one day some asshole runs past him like he's moving at a snail's pace on his own morning run.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [King_Carbonele](https://archiveofourown.org/users/King_Carbonele/gifts).



> The prompt was cowboys, more like Brokeback Mountain, or something soft and domestic, like 'a flower shop au or something idk'. Which is, to be fair, a huge mood. Blasphemous as it sounds, I've never watched Brokeback Mountain but I figured adding sad gay cowboys pays homage to the classic.
> 
> I am sorry that the story took a bit of time to upload! My wifi isn't always the best and I'm over in Europe, I was out waaaay too late last night. I can't hang with the spaniards man, they party too hard ;w;w;w;
> 
> This gift is for Shotgun-sinner/King Carbonele! Merry Christmas and I hope you enjoy my take on a flower shop AU!

Not for the first time, and definitely not the last that he cursed his alarm clock as it blared too close to his ear, and his shitty bed creaked under his shifting weight. It wasn't that it was something he wasn't used to, and perhaps that was the problem. He stared at the number accusingly. It was 6 A.M., and habit demanded of him to get an early morning run in.

With great displeasure and the unfortunate taste of his own mouth from getting just shy of drunk the night before off shit drinks, he cursed the way Reyes had trained him for all that time. With another shift, he made himself sit up and slap his alarm clock into silence. The room was still around him, and yet again he found himself wishing for the warm presence of a teammate over all this silence. And of course, once again, there was still nothing.

Instead of perseverating, he got to his feet and threw on his running gear, ignoring the amount of stares that running in a t-shirt this time of year in LA would get him. He ran too hot blooded to be bothered by the mild cold, and he was too used to drawing attention to really care about the stares. He crammed his feet into his worn out sneakers, and hopped down the four flights of stairs in his apartment building, the elevator still broken from the previous weekend.

He opened the door to his building, and was met with the softest sounds of city clamor the place ever offered him. He relaxed as the noise filled his ears and he was able to forget that there was supposed to be others beside him, doing this very routine. He shut off his brain as he started his run facing the eastern horizon.

The early morning weather was nice, at least. Like all his days since his life had changed and he'd moved out here, he mindlessly watched the sun rise over LA once again.

Jesse McCree had all an hour to get his thoughts together before he had to head into work for another day of the daily grind in his post-mess life. He didn't dare think about it as anything more than post-mess until he had more time to wake up.

Unfortunately for Jesse, for some fucking reason, he didn't find himself alone that particular morning.

He felt an uncomfortable prickle up the back of his neck that meant he had a tail, from all those fucking days training and working in his field.

He didn't spare a glance over his shoulder, almost inviting whatever it was that followed him like a ghost. He couldn't stop them, if they wanted something out of him. Maybe whoever it was would put him out of his misery, or maybe it was just his past coming to haunt him.

The even, if quick paced person behind him wasn't…actually a tail, he realized after a moment. The heavy-footed runner caught up with Jesse, and then  _passed him_. He almost felt affronted- after all, though he was hardly in tip top shape anymore, neither was he out of shape.

The man who ran past him was muscular, a bit more so than Jesse himself was. He had white hair. Now that got him riled up- an  _old man_  passed him by?

Unconsciously, Jesse pushed himself to go faster, determined not to be outdone.

The other runner didn't pay him any mind, but they eventually broke off, their paths diverging. Jesse only relaxed a bit. They ran into each other, over and over. They didn't have the same path, but they ran a similar enough one that they met up fairly often.

It pissed Jesse off. This guy was able to run circles around him, it felt like.

Eventually they both stopped in a park, taking a water break. Jesse was sweating like a sinner in church, feeling absolutely pressed that it looked like the exertion was  _nothing_  to this guy.

Jesse didn't say a word, not half awake enough to want to deal with this, his fingers itching for a smoke- but that would negate the point of him going on his morning run, wouldn't it?

The man looked at him, seeming shocked to see him, and find Jesse staring.

He wasn't actually old, Jesse realized a bit belatedly. Middle aged, but so was Jesse. Now  _that_  was a terrifying thought. Man just had a shock of white hair, and a big ol' scar down the front of his face. Quickly, Jesse made his face blank as he could manage it, since he didn't wanna look like the asshole staring at someone's facial scars. Never mind how much of a hypocrite that would make him, considering his arm bein' the way it was now.

His arm went to his side, instinctively hiding behind him. The movement wasn't unnoticed by the other man, but he seemed just as…put upon as Jesse was. They shifted in the silence, before Jesse took off again, wanting to finish his run already.

XXXXX

After his run, his mornings always felt like he was really just going through the motions. Actually, apart from this strange encounter with the white haired dude, he felt equally disconnected from living during his morning run. It was just another obligation.

Make coffee, eat a piece of fruit and boring cheap white bread toast, smoke a shitty tasting cigarette because he was low on funds towards the end of the month and was too proud to ask for his paycheck any earlier. Take a lukewarm shower because he was too lazy and embarrassed to call up the landlord and ask him to show him how to fix the persnickety gas line  _again_  and besides, it wasn't a cold shower and he'd had plenty of those in his lifetime. Get dressed and wrap up in his serape to stave off the chill. Head out 10 til 8 to show up at work and actually get started on his  _real_ daily grind.

He showed up at Oddities and Ends, and took the keys out of his pockets, irritably noticing that Ashe was late,  _again_. The store technically didn't open for another hour, but he and Ashe were usually there an hour beforehand to get things planned out and fix up displays and such. They were also the only two folks with keys, and Bars in particular needed the warmth inside the building and would show up mysteriously the moment it was opened.

As though on cue once McCree switched on the lights, the omnic showed up and scurried to the coffee bar they had set up in the middle of the store to make himself one.

"Mornin', Bars." McCree greeted after a moment of fiddling with the inside lock, making sure that nobody thought they were open early or something equally heinous.

The omnic looked up at him and offered a cool wave, his two-toned eyes staring at him owlishly. McCree could hardly blame the guy for keeping quiet- he was a rather lean omnic model, and usually needed the hour before opening to warm up and perform repairs on himself.

McCree didn't ask, and Bars didn't tell. It was a fine balance, looking at the bigger picture. He stretched out his neck, and headed to his own station, preparing to make calls to his supplier to make sure the delivery was on its way. He flopped down on one of the chairs in the back, and looked around his and Ashe's new business.

The place was considered a local gem, and perhaps that was both an insult and the best compliment possible. Their 'most helpful' yelp review remained a person who had visited in the first month it'd been open, and had written this:

_Oddities and Ends has all the charm of the oddities store that start's a pick your own adventure novel. It has just about everything, from furniture to a little café styled after a saloon. If you are a fan of westerns, or at least are able to ignore the obnoxious cowboy themed backdrop, then drop on by and you won't be disappointed with what you walk away from, even if you happen to only leave with photographs you took._

They had naturally respondedwith, " _What do you mean,_ _ **themed**_ _?"_

It had been open for almost a year and a half now, marking the almost two year anniversary of this part of McCree's life and the old one, and it had been far more successful than he thought it would be.

With the smell of coffee brewing, McCree perked up out of his contemplative state, and stood, figuring he had to get to the menial tasks of running a business. "Make me one too, Bars." He ordered lazily, heading to his displays again, grabbing his phone out of his front pocket. Ashe had yet to text him, and he still had to go to the flower district and pick up stock.

That was probably the worst part of it all, and the best at the same time.

Ashe and McCree and those two other schmucks opened this place as a retail store that just sold a lil bit of everything and the 'experience'. Originally, their stock was from Ashe getting rid of her family's shit, and they had to come up with new

However, Ashe started selling little succulents and cacti because she saw online they were becoming a huge hit again, and McCree started gardening to produce them. This led him to having an actual garden in the otherwise empty and unused dining area of his apartment. On a whim, he'd then made a floral arrangement for the front desk out of plants he and Ashe remembered from home in the southwest. He knew he and Ashe's relationship left much to be desired, and it'd been almost an apology. But then someone had thought it was pretty, and they'd bought it.

And so, arrangement-by-arrangement, slowly McCree- ex covert ops operative, probably wanted in at least 10 states under one of his aliases, well greased machine made for killing with very few applicable skills anywhere- began selling  _flowers._

The irony of it didn't escape him, and in fact, it probably made the whole situation worse. If Reyes could see him now, he'd probably say this was Jesse's most successful cover job yet.

But unfortunately, Reyes couldn't see him now.

That was because Gabriel Reyes was dead.

And so apart from whatever he had left with Ashe, Jesse McCree was alone in the world.

XXXXX

For whatever reason, his tail turned fucking superhuman runner just keep running into each other, literally. Jesse shouldn't really feel  _this_  annoyed by the fact, but he ran this at this time in the morning because he wanted to  _avoid_  the people of LA. More than once, he found himself cursing out health nuts and their ilk in spades.

The guy who ran in the same general area seemed to notice him too, always seeming to squint when he passed him by like McCree was  _walking_. Jesse had to hold back his immediate irked feeling at being passed, because the guy didn't seem…actively rude or anything. Just curious.

But that innocent feeling of curiosity wasn't exactly reciprocated by Jesse, who felt a jolt of irritation every time the stranger passed him so easily.

Eventually, Jesse stopped at the park that they both took a water break at. And the guy stopped too. It was O' Dark Thirty, and the sun wasn't even a wink in the distance- the clocks were about to be set back. The rest of the city mostly wasn't awake yet, and neither of 'em were dressed the way that LA thought they should be.

The muscled man shifted side to side, blue eyes seeming to contemplate him from a distance in the grey light of the early morning, before something seems to click.

The interloper spoke up, "You were military." He said, seeming to make his conclusion and seeming pleased by it. That meant the interloper probably was too. Jesse shrugged.

"Close enough, I guess," He shifted as well, holding his water bottle and staring at the empty thing like it could help him with the situation. He still felt a bit jilted at the fact he'd been surpassed  _again_. The man picked up on his uncomfortable energy, and nodded, backing off some.

"Can't give me the details?" He guessed, hitting the nail on the head.

"Mm. Can't even afford to give the VA the details."

"Guessing you were involved in the crisis, then?"

"Close enough." Jesse gave another shrug, giving into the fact that he wasn't gonna let him stand here in silence and peace. "Supposed I only ever circled around its edges, though. Only thing I can say that wouldn't make my ex officer kill me is i was picked up in Arizona. We did stuff pretty much…everywhere though."

The man just winced and nodded because, yeah. The aftermath of the crisis was messy and the American Southwest was largely a lawless hell scape overrun with gangs thieves and honest men trying to make a living.

"Name's Jack." He introduced himself, offering Jesse a hand. He didn't hesitate long, before shaking it. Jack didn't flinch at the prosthetic wrapping its way around his hand, and Jesse started to relax.

"McCree," Jesse introduced back a tad more formally, something Jack clearly picked up on, raising a brow. "…Suppose now it's just Jesse, though. But what about you?"

Jack perked up at Jesse started to ask him questions too. It's clear the guy's just looking for a conversation partner, and even though Jesse wasn't exactly happy about being that this early in the morning, he wasn't gonna shut him down.

"I'm 'fraid I can't say much either." He admitted, a touch embarrassed. "But… American Midwest, and then…a few spells overseas." Jack shifted from side to side before he continued. "So, what are you doing now?" He asked, trying to change the subject from the awkward impasse of their service.

Jesse needed a smoke before he could talk about that seriously, and he held up a finger to make Jack aware he needed a hot second. He reached into his pocket and felt around for a cigarette and his lighter, holding the cigarette in his teeth as he lit it, before shoving the lighter in his pocket and taking a drag. However, this only prompted complete confusion from Jack.

He took another long drag, before he held the cigarette in his fingers. "I'm a fucking florist." He told Jack, dead serious.

It took a moment to register, but the way the skin at the sides of Jack's eyes wrinkled, and how he couldn't hold back some quiet chuckles at Jesse's expense told him that the idea was equally funny to Jack. Jesse understood fine, while he wasn't necessarily built like Jack was- that was, like a brick shithouse- neither did he look like a florist.

Staring slightly to the side of Jack, he took another drag before shrugging. "Hey, it pays my bills. What are  _you_  doing now, exactly?" He pokes a finger at him, jabbing the air.

That comment made the air between them feel a lot more like he'd cut a live wire, as Jack went stiff and pursed his lips. A bit too late, Jesse realized he might have hit a sensitive topic. Jesse almost groaned, but bit back the sound. He shifted, and stubbed out his cigarette, tossing the remnants in the lone ashtray by them. "Hey, 's not a big deal if you ain't got a clue yet." Jesse tried to ease the tension. "I only got this job 'cause an old friend of mine needed a business partner who was moderately reliable."

"Only moderately?" Jack asked, trying to at least add some humor back into his demeanor. Jesse felt like a real asshole. He knew how awful it was to have no clue what he was doing at any point in time. What would he have done if Ashe had told him to fuck off when they'd met up back then? Probably moped about Reyes being dead and be homeless.

"Eh, seeing as her only other options were flakier than me even factoring in our problems, she was willing to compromise." Jesse explained, rubbing his neck. "So yeah, moderately. She's the one who's late to work every day too."

Jack snorted, looking around the park. "Can't imagine you not making it on time when you're up this early."

Jesse nodded. "I get there just before 8 to set up house. We open at 9." His mouth moved before his head had a chance to catch up. "You should come by sometime- shop's called Oddities and Ends. We're a fun bunch."

Jack gave him a bewildered look at the invitation, but nodded. "Alright then. I'll see if I'm able to, then." He said, smirking as he gestured to Jesse's legs, "But, we were both running, and I think we've rested a bit too long, you're gonna cramp up bad."

Admittedly, Jesse was relieved at the reprieve. He put his water bottle away, and waved goodbye, before taking off in a warm up jog, trying to settle back in the routine, but feeling how that was already thrown way out the door.

XXXXX

When Ashe finally showed up for work that day, she leveled McCree with a flat stare, and her sunglasses dipped down her nose to analyze him with that suspicious red look of hers.

"You're in a good mood today, Jesse." She announced, definitely trying to pick that statement apart even as she said it.

Was he? Jesse tilted his head in that way Ashe hated, almost like a dog, and she rolled her eyes, setting her nearly empty Starbucks cup down on the table in the middle, before joining him on the old sofa he loved so much. Ashe licked her lips carefully, arms crossed.

McCree pondered that a moment. He still did all his boring things in his routine.

Breakfast hadn't been such a sordid affair since he hadn't had to nurse his coffee quite so desperately when he'd been forced out of his early morning cranky mood by a surprise conversation. He supposed that was the root, and it just followed that he'd managed to finagle the shower into using actually warm water, which had been accompanied by an almost sexually pleasurable shower.

"Out with it. You're usually in a piss poor mood, and you brood in your corner. It's part of your  _appeal_  to a whole lot of ladies who pass through here." Ashe explained her thoughts, leaning back.

"Mighta met someone interesting." He guessed, and Ashe lifted an eyebrow at that.

"Interestin' how, McCree?" She pressed for some details, almost acting like they were teenagers playing cards around a table.

McCree didn't know how to put words to that. "Well, he was ex-military too, for a start." He began, and Ashe narrowed her eyes, before groaning and standing.

"Alright, then I'm guessing you met this person on your morning run. Here you had me thinking you had done something fun last night instead of moping in your apartment." She chastised him, grabbing her coffee off the table, finishing it off. "I'll leave you to your devices then, if you don't have any juicy gossip."

"Always subtle, Ashe," Jesse joked, rolling his eyes. "Don't worry, the second I get laid is the second you won't be able to shut me up."

"At least save it until the customers get here. Did you know there's  _Fanfiction_  about you now out there? There's only one story, and they got way too many details right for my comfort, but it exists now. How's it feel to be a local cryptid, Jesse?"

Jesse made a face at that. "Gross, where'd you even find it?"

Ashe gave him a smirk. "Internet," She said, noncommittally, as B.O.B. came in with several boxes of shipment. "Anyways, you have work to be doing. Christmas season is in full swing, and we'll need your hands on deck to help decorate."

"Well, then it's a good thing I sent the triplets to the market for me this morning." Jesse admitted, standing as he heard the truck blare its horn from outside. "I'll have more time after I get some holiday arrangements set up to show off what we have."

Ashe seemed satisfied by his answer, even if she didn't enjoy her authority being undercut by giving the triplets extra hours in the morning. She let him go about his business again. He propped open the door for the triplets to be able to come in and out, satisfied with the haul they'd pulled in for him from the floral district he liked to go to first. He gladly pitched in a hand, grabbing the nearest box full of the potted plants to carry in himself.

XXXXX

It actually took a few days for Jack to take him up on his offer. It wasn't that they left off on an awkward note, just that Jesse had to do a little more hunting than usual to get the things he wanted for his winter arrangements that decorated the shop. The best times at the floral district was always early in the morning, and that meant that he had to move his morning run to 4 am, and sometimes, cancel it entirely.

That might have sent a weird message to Jack, so Jesse was surprised when he turned up at the storefront with an almost comically small dog on the leash attached to his owner. Realistically, the animal wasn't that small- it was just that he was large. It seemed to be a greyhound, one of the smaller sorts. Jack cleaned up alright, in a light coat to fit in the same way that McCree did in the face of all these folks without any fuckin' blood. He pushed open the door when he saw that dogs were allowed inside, and seemed taken aback by the appearance of the place.

"What's with the Wild West theme?"

Immediately, Jesse and Ashe had to respond in tandem. "What do you mean,  _theme?"_  They stated with faux outrage, before Jesse tipped his hat at the bewildered man. Their more seasoned customers giggled from their place at their café, or from where they shopped inside.

Jesse made sure no one was paying too close attention to him, before he approached, going quiet.

"Hey, you had me starting to think that you weren't gonna take me up on the offer." Jesse said with a lazy grin.

"I thought you said you were a florist." Jack finally managed to say, raising eyebrows at him as he looked around again. "I didn't mean to take this long, it was just…well, I've not seen you on your morning runs."

"I am a florist." Jesse said, hand over his heard in false hurt as he held up the flowers he was working on arranging. "The shop's just a bit more complicated than that." He gestured around. "The Missus over there's Ashe, Bars is the one serving coffee, the big one's B.O.B., and the triplets work wherever they gotta."

"McCree, the chatter's fine, jus'  _remember_  that that order you have there needs to be completed for this afternoon," Ashe reminded from across the way, arms crossed as she sized Jack up herself.

In the light of day, it was a lot easier to see Jack's scars, but it was just as easy to see McCree's. The tiny lil dog even seemed to have on one of those jackets that denoted it was a working dog. He looked around the store, a bit amazed.

"You know, I thought I was a fan of this sort of stuff, but you guys really put me to shame," He admitted, looking up and down Jesse. "And-" he paused at his shoes. "Oh, come on, you're even wearing cowboy boots and a hat! There's no way this wasn't a marketing decision." Jack argued with him, in disbelief.

"Nah, we're both just of that disposition." Jesse chuckled, rolling his eyes playfully as he returned to working through his Christmas bouquet design. "My ex-officer would kill me if I said the full truth, and so would my coworker here, but it was what we woulda looked like if we had stayed put down there. Keeps us popular in the meanwhile, but we didn't decide to do this  _because_  it'd be popular."

"If anything, we're popular in spite of the getup!" One of the triplets chimed in, bringing the vase McCree had asked for to complete this order. His accent was about as thick as Ashe's, and Jack raised an eyebrow.

"You're missing an accent." He noted, interested.

McCree shifted, before shrugging. "I suppose it ain't as thick as Ashe's, or the others, but…well, I like to think I still have enough of one. If I don't it's because of my old boss."

Jack nodded, following him with interest. He stared at the still in-progress creation, and his hands fidgeted at his sides, the dog standing placidly at his side. "What got you into gardening?" Jack asked, staring at it curiously.

"Well, what really pushed me was when Ashe here started selling all those mini cacti in the shop, and it really ain't that hard to farm em. But I suppose that's only 'cause my Pa owned a farm."

"Your dad owned a farm?" Jack's eyes lit up. "My family did as well, actually. I kinda miss it, but…I don't really know if I wanna return to Indiana anymore to run one."

"Oh, so we got a couple of farmer's boys here, and so we both know that means I didn't grow up on a ranch, yeah?"

Jack snorted, nodding as he relaxed some more. "I mean, we had chickens, but…"

"Not cattle." Jesse finished, smirking. "I'm guessing your folks grew corn?"

"And soybeans, don't forget those." Jack rolled his eyes as he joked mildly. "What about your folks?"

"Far as I can recall, we had a big ol' nursery outside of Santa Fe, I remember though, that Pa sold a lot of chilies at the farmers market." Jesse rubbed his arms, nostalgic. "I don't precisely recall all the details, but it was Pa's livelihood."

Jack sobered, saddening some. "Ah, you would have been young when the crisis hit, wouldn't you…?"

Jesse felt the petals of a peppermint lily. "I was 7, yeah. There wasn't really a place for a chili farm after that, and…well. You know how it was." Jesse deflected. "I met Ashe and we hit it off real swell, so it wasn't like I was alone."

Jack looked to Bars and B.O.B., seeming curious. "You don't mind working with… them, then?"

Jesse looked between Jack and the omnics busy at work. "You know? Not really, at all. I worked with plenty back in the day, it'd be nice to see some of the ones I spent a lotta time with, and its not like they're responsible for whatever happened. Not to mention, B.O.B. is practically my weird uncle, since he might as well be Ashe's dad."

Jack was bewildered by that fact, but wisely, he didn't ask.

"McCree, I don't see a whole lotta work going on there!" Ashe yelled back, probably irritated with him for bringing up their shared past so casually. "If you wanna strike up a friendship, invite him to poker or something! Off company time."

McCree sighed, and Jack looked sheepish. "I'm sorry for distracting you." He apologized, dipping his head apologetically.

Jesse waved a hand to ease his guilt. "Nah, it's my fault- she has a few sore spots. But uh, like she said. I'm here basically every day, and on weekend nights we run poker games. Be warned though, we're a group of card sharks here."

Jack seemed interested, but he shifted awkwardly. "Is there a money pool, or somethin?"

"Now why would we have one of those?" Ashe asked as she approached them to get things settled again, wrapping an arm around McCree in a way that made Jack's eyebrows go up in surprise. "That would be  _illegal_." She said innocently, a smirk on her face. McCree rolled his eyes.

"We won't do one if you come, how about that?" Jesse muttered, removing Ashe's arm from his shoulders, and Ashe glared at him, and she coughed to draw his attention to the customers who all seemed rather interested. "Or if anyone comes aside from our staff. Because that'd be illegal." Jesse finally gave in, both he and Ashe put out as they saw some people take out phones to mark some night or another.

"Alright." Jack admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'll... see if I have time." He finally managed, and picked up the extremely well behaved dog off the floor. "I'll see you around, Jesse." He murmured, before ducking out of the store.

Ashe watched him as he went. "Now that's an interestin' fella you have there McCree." She folded her arms. "He the man you met?"

Jesse frowned at her, before he sighed, figuring he'd dipped into her business, and she was just returning the favor. "Yeah, that was him, Ashe. Play nice."

"I was plenty nice." Ashe defended herself, gesturing to the flowers on the table. "You were getting distracted, I had to refocus you. But I gave him another opportunity to see you, you should be more  _grateful."_ Ashe rumbled out quietly, shaking her head at him. "Get cracking, she already called to ask if it was done."

McCree cursed under his breath, gathering up the rest of his flowers and cursing as he realized he had to really finish this before he was late on delivering it.

XXXXX

Jesse and Jack didn't see each other as often as they had before they'd spoken on their morning run. However, they were back to spotting each other, at least. It wasn't quite the same thing, usually they were minutes off the mark from a run in, and Jack sometimes looked like he wanted to say something, and McCree sometimes did too.

When they finally met again at the park, Jack trotted over to him, looking more than a little awkward.

"I was starting to think you were avoiding me." Jack admitted softly, shifting from side to side.

"Nah." Jesse shook his head. "It's just holiday season. Ashe's got the whip cracked and I am in the weeds." He stretched to shake off any residual nerves. "I'm a grown ass man, I'm too old for the avoiding weird conversations mess." He tried to soothe, and Jack snorted quietly.

He bent at the waist to stretch his back, and craned his head up to look back at Jack. "Are you gonna come to poker night?" He asked, out of curiosity. "We have the main one advertised for Saturday night, so Friday oughta be dead by comparison." He gave him an out for being too shy to say he was too shy to mess with a big crowd vying for Jesse's attention.

"Could I bring some friends?" Jack asked, surprising Jesse some. "Well, one friend, and the other…well, I don't even know if  _bring_  with is the right word, but she'd come maybe a bit after I arrived. She's just…worried about me, she might ask you some invasive questions."

Jesse laughed. "Ah, one of  _those_  types huh?" He recalled a certain blonde doctor who patched him up with many rude words. "But yeah, sure. The more the merrier. Just no cops, please."

Jack relaxed some, and he looked out to the horizon. "So you're running earlier, then?"

"I have to run to the flower districts first thing, that's why." Jesse admitted. "Really, I should get going."

"A flower district?" Jack seemed interested. "Mind if I tag along?"

"Yeah, sure." Jesse allowed, figuring it'd be harmless. "Let's stop by my apartment. You just can't judge it, alright?"

"Fair deal."

XXXXX

"You know, when you asked me to hold off on judgment, I'd expected a mess. Maybe some beer bottles on the floor, dishes not done, laundry sprawled across the floor. But this? This is beyond asking to hold off judgment. This is 'you need an intervention' level bad, Jesse McCree."

"Eh, who needs a dining table anyway?" Jesse shrugged, stepping over the seedlings he had planted in his garden and whatever leftover black ops supply that he left lying around.

"Most people, typically," Jack countered, eyes wide as he hung back by the door, seeming afraid of the place, looking like he thought that if he tried to trapeze through like Jesse was, the whole place would come crashing down like a stack of cards.

"That's just the man keeping us down." Jesse bantered back. "Dining tables? Useless. God gave us all tables in our very form. Look at these things." Jesse smacked his lean muscular legs for Jack, the sound reverberating in the apartment. "Capitalism is evil, and so I ain't gonna buy a whole ass table and chair  _set_  just for eating when I can do that just as easily on my couch."

Jack shook his head in amused disgust. "You're gonna have a rat problem one of these days, and it'll be exactly because of that." He told him off, leaning against the door. "But you need to change. Hurry, I don't want to get dragged under one of your trash piles and eaten by whatever monster lurks there."

"Hey, that's just uncalled for." McCree said, frowning. "But I getcha, I getcha. Just let me change." He removed his running shirt- an old t-shirt that wasn't grey when he'd bought it with some forgotten phrasing on it, and pulled his runner's shorts down his hips, thoughtlessly, and Jack sputtered. McCree looked to him, raising a brow in surprise. "C'mon, we've both seen this shit before." Jesse countered. "We were both military."

Jack's face was bright red, and he held up a hand to cover where McCree's body hair started trailing down into pubic hair. "Go get dressed, McCree." He managed, voice a bit higher than it had been before. Jesse snickered, sauntering off lazily.

"It's what you _get_ , implying I need a dining table." He rolled his eyes with a lazy smirk, before getting to his room, grateful for a brief reprieve. Jesse had meant it, when he said Jack was fine to come along, but now it was like his whole…routine was off schedule. Nothing was how he'd been doing it to pull through, and that left McCree unsettled.

The other thing was, Jack sounded a lot like he thought Gabe would. This felt like when he'd argue with Gabe about his lifestyle, and it had when Jack had seemed bewildered by his civilian look. He was positive Gabe would have a thing or two to say about his get-up, and none of it would be positive.

And yeah, the reminder hurt. He took a deep breath.

Jack wasn't Gabe- he had to keep that straight. Even if they were both ex-military, it wasn't smart of Jesse to try to strip like that. Jack was a stranger who he was in the process of becoming friends with. He had to remember he wasn't quite friends with him  _yet_ , and Jack clearly had been…well, weirded out by that.

He threw on his button up, and the rest of his gear. He rubbed his hand over peacekeeper from where she sat on his dresser, before heading back out, putting his hat on as he dipped back into the common area.

Jack snorted as he saw the hat, seeming to have calmed down as well.

"Let's get this show on the road, then, bud." Jesse announced, wrapping his serape around his shoulders as he waltzed back across the room.

XXXXX

For however weird Jesse had made it for Jack, when they got to the flower district it was like they were both kids in a candy shop. Jesse wasn't lying when he said that in spite of the massive irony, he did really enjoy his job.

"You know, in spite of how I think you really need to clean your house up, it's…nice to see that you have such a nice garden." Jack murmured, hands ghosting over some of the various flowers on display as they walked through, Jesse carrying his list of orders he wanted to place with his wholesaler and things he needed to buy that day.

"Oh, yeah." Jesse rubbed the nape of his neck. "I mean, I don't have a dog, so I just…well, gardening was a solution. I knew how to do it, and I could always reap the benefits of it. I didn't expect to become a floral designer, but, well, I've not really known what life had in store for me since I was a teenager."

Jack hummed in agreement, following him through. Jesse had to break off quite a few times to place orders, and he also wound up using his serape to carry things he needed for that day with them.

"They don't sell vegetables here, do they?" Jack asked, interested as Jesse tied off his serape and slung it over his shoulders, the flowers neatly stored there so they wouldn't get bunched up too badly on transport.

"Nah, wish they did. They do have a farmer's market to go to though, but it's only on Saturdays." Jesse hummed, feeling…oddly domesticated as he said that. "Why?"

"I think I might try…to do what you're doing." Jack murmured, shifting. "But flowers can be toxic to dogs, so…a vegetable garden, that'd be nice."

Jesse paused, not letting his smile drop too far off his face, but definitely taken aback by this.

Because…oh no.

That was  _cute_.

XXXXX

Thinking that the dude he had met like a week ago that he was becoming friends with over morning runs and a somewhat intangible military history past was cute was probably just a phase, Jesse McCree told himself firmly as he finished ringing up his arrangement sales for the day. Yep. Probably just another low point in a life that was wholly defined by low points- from when McCree founded a gang with Ashe, to when he was caught red handed by Gabe, the whole mess of Genji's not-quite-corpse, losing his  _arm_ , moving to LA and living here like an absolute  _madman_ … Yeah. Finding this newcomer cute was probably just a symptom of whatever it was he'd fallen into.

It had to be, because Jesse didn't rightly know what he'd do if it weren't just another low point and it was  _actually_  a case of feelings developing in him.

"Thank you for your business, Ma'am." Jesse said politely, and the woman gave him a placid smile.

"They're wonderful, you charmer." She said appraisingly. "Who made this for me?" She asked, and McCree recalled vaguely hers had been one of the online orders. He flushed, grateful that his darker skin meant the pink color was darkened as well.

"That'd be me, Ma'am." He explained, smiling at her before checking her out with a practiced motion. Behind them, Ashe and the triplets helped Bars break down the coffee bar into something more usable.

It was Friday, and that meant it was poker night.

The customer in front of him seemed amused as B.O.B. finally had to step in and lift up the piece of equipment in question, and Jesse rolled his eyes at the scene. "Uhm. Have a good night, happy holidays- tonight's poker, feel free to stay if you'd like." He managed, before making a gesture like he was going to help them.

The woman did decide to hang around; keeping a sharp eye on Jesse that had something odd crawling up his back. It reminded him of when he felt like Jack was a tail, or something.

Speak of the devil, right as they all finally managed to get their ducks in a row and the poker table set up right in the middle of the now-emptied out café, Jack walked in.

"Hey Jesse!" He greeted as he bustled through the door, making a beeline towards the older woman. "I see you've met Ana."

Jesse raised a brow at that, and Jack looked at her and frowned. "You didn't introduce yourself?" He chastised, before sighing. "She was my coworker, in the army."

Ana extended a hand towards Jesse. "I was just waiting for you to get here. I didn't want to 'weird him out' like you said I would," she teased Jack clearly as he and her shook hands, Jesse keeping a firm grip. "Can our friend not make it, then?" She asked, looking at Jack carefully.

"No, she'll have to join us later." Jack lamented, sighing. "She was held up at work tonight. But that's alright, I'm sure this'll be fun and she won't mind if she can't be dealt in."

Ashe seemed awfully unimpressed from where she stood, staring at the lot of them skeptically. "You sure do like bringing military types around Jesse." She told him carefully, undoubtedly remembering their bust in the same, clear way Jesse himself did.

"We're not doing anything illegal." Jesse snipped back at her. "Calm your horses and get B.O.B. to play dealer." He gestured to the poker table. "Shall we?"

XXXXX

The night was uneventful, if very fun. They managed to get through several rounds of Texas hold'em without any strife, and though Jack wasn't very good, Ana was a fellow card shark who gave Jesse and Ashe a real run for their money more than once. That really was saying something too, given that they both weren't exactly beginners at the game.

At some point, things died down as they poured drinks, nothing for sale of course, Ashe had reminded, but as it was a quiet night Jesse felt fine about offering drinks to friends. After the whiskey and spinach dip came out, that meant it was more or less story time, and the cards and chips were forgotten on the table.

McCree gestured wildly as he felt good, buzzed, talking about his past like this. That was a change in pace, usually Ashe woulda shut him up about his stint in the military, but this story seemed to be making her laugh just as well.

"Now, see, the car we got was a fucking pull lawn mower that could go 110 miles an hour. And we'd be going that speed and then a person in a Lamborghini would pass us and look like what the  _hell_  are you doing driving a lawn mower, in the left lane, no less." McCree said, giving his best attempt at an Italian accent, the company before him in stitches. He took a moment to take a swig out of his flask, shaking his head in amusement. "Really though, the left lane was just the side that was closer to the mountain in that case."

"And we drove that thing 90 miles up the hill- because, you know, it couldn't quite handle the slope. But us three stooges on our own decided that, due to the weather, we wanted to get off the road as fast as possible. So we took the shortest route. Problem was, it went right up the pass." McCree paused, using his prosthetic arm to show them the angle of ascent.

"And we got there, going 90 miles an hour in a lawn mower no bigger than this table- with me, my coworkers Genji, Fio and even the fucking lanky giant Moira, all in it. The four of us on both sides, all of our gear stuffed between us like we were in a clown car from hell." we get to the top of that pass and…the car won't go." Jesse savored the moment as they started howling, his hand teetering in its gesture of the car at the top of the mountain. "And then, it starts sliding backwards."

"So Genji, Moira, Fio and I all have to turn around because the stupid rust bucket won't pass the top of the hill! And then we have to drive another 3 hours going the other way. Remember, we were all so excited, going to Europe, we were expecting a Porsche, a Lamborghini, a Ferrari, you know. Some sort of luxury rental car- Genji had my hopes all up about how we were black ops, it was a guarantee we'd get the coolest damn car to drive through Europe! And remember! My boss got something real nice but us?  _Nope_ , we got the shittiest damn car in the lot! It had  _wheels!_ It was like he told the staff to give us something that was cheap to insure and they took it as a  _challenge_!"

"You drove it?" Jack asked, in teary-eyed mirth. "Remind me not to take a ride with you."

Quietly, a bell rang in the background. Jesse barely registered it over the sound of laughing around him, and he just figured that that must be Jack's doctor friend coming in.

"I drive fine!" Jesse protested. "Hell, I even can drive a motorcycle! I had to drive anyways since Moira's legs didn't fit with the steering wheel, and neither she or I could fit into the back seat! It was a European clown car from hell! Even now, I can't believe that-"

"Jesse?"

His entire body seized up at the familiar voice. Soft, feminine, concerned blue eyes reading him like a book as the entire room noticed how quickly the energy had been drained out of him, leaving a frozen shell.

Angela Ziegler was staring at him, dressed in a soft sweater and now she looked concerned, as did everyone else in the room. Jack and Ana seemed equally shocked at his response, that Angela knew him in the first place.

The spell broke when she tried to take another spell towards him, and he and Ashe sprung into immediate action, since Jesse ain't never had a reaction like this. Ashe stood defensively, throwing her keys to him. He almost didn't catch em, but he managed, stumbling out from behind the poker table, chips falling as he shook the table.

"Jesse,  _wait_ ," She pleaded as she took another step forward into Ashe's waiting form, but Jesse had spent too much time  _running_  to face her here, like this.

Jack sat helplessly as Jesse ran once again.

He shoved the keys into Ashe's bike out back, tears now starting to drip down his face at being forced to see her again. The pieces were starting to come together for him, and they were likely coming together for all those out there.

" _Jesse… I'm sorry. He… he's not going to make it." Angela had told him softly, eyes sympathetic, as though she hadn't told him something that had ruined his whole life._

" _He's not going to get better. He's brain dead. I need to bring him to our parent organization… they've already ordered the disbanding of…this branch." She tried to say delicately, but Genji practically looked like he was melting in guilt._

" _You knew." Jesse said, looking to them both, his voice cracking. He wanted to slug Genji's face as the guilt darkened there._

" _I've already been moved into the parent organization." Genji said quietly. "They didn't want to risk absorbing the entirety of us considering…what we did and who we were before… and the crisis is mostly won. I'm sorry, Jesse."_

_They kept saying these words like it would make it any better. "So not only is my boss dead, but I'm out of a job, huh?" He laughed, the sound watery. His hands shook as he took desperate drags from a cigar._

_His feet started moving on their own, and in spite of Angela and Genji telling him to wait, he ran. It was to be the fate of all of Gabe's forces. They were all out of work, and from the sound of it, asking for severance pay was gonna get them into a lot more trouble than it was worth._

He felt absolutely frozen inside as he revved the bike, the picture of him and Ashe playing poker on the front reminding him how far he had come since he'd been a 20 something year old arms dealer with her and had been made something out of by Gabe.

He held back his sob until the sound was lost in the noise of the engine, and took off like a bandit in the night.

XXXXX

Jesse drove his way clear past of the California state line. He of course texted Ashe that he wouldn't be in for work Saturday, as he'd gotten a hotel out in Arizona, needing the desert to whip around him like an old forgotten friend before he could even manage to think clearly about this.

Ashe texted him back, the noise of it the only thing he heard out in the desert with him. 'Christ. That bad, huh? Military types left right after you did, I think they went to your place.'

'I brought jack over once. s' why I bolted'

'Don't be gone too long, Jesse. I know we've gotten by without discussing any of this, but this has to do with you showing up drunk and crying at my home back then, doesn't it?' It took her two texts to ask this, and Jesse sat on it as he stared up at the empty Arizona night sky.

He closed his eyes, before he leaned against her bike.

'it might. they didn't explain it?"

"Nah, they got the fuck out of dodge when the new blonde tried to chase you."

'Blonde's the one who told me I was outta a job cause the main organization didn't wanna associate with my type of person. In the same breath as she said my boss was brain dead when he'd taken a shot meant for me.'

'Eesh.' There was silence for a long time, and Jesse stood up, deciding it was past time to get to bed.

He was about to fall into bed when his phone rang again.

'I'm sorry, Jesse. I'll see you Sunday'

He sighed, and agreed. He had a day to get himself back under control. He could do that easy. He had to.

XXXXX

Sunday morning, Jesse showed up to work, quieter than normal. Bars offered him a coffee that he took real quiet. He had orders to fill, a few which were a day late now. He had no time to think about if Jack or his friends would come back for answers.

Ashe came in, and she held up a hand for her keys, which he tossed to her thoughtlessly. She pat his back to try and reassure her in that awkward way he'd done for her that day, and Jesse somehow felt torn open in a new kind of way.

None of them came to the store that day, and he wasn't told if any of them had tried to find him on Saturday.

The days ticked down towards Christmas, sure as time always did. Jesse was almost thankful that his routine was thrown outta whack from the new schedule, but he didn't like wondering what Jack thought about this now. He knew he'd said he wasn't big on avoiding, and he wasn't. He'd needed the desert to bring himself to terms with the fact that somehow, Jack and Ana were connected to Angela, and that meant they more than likely were all apart of the parent organization that had turned him out.

And anyway, he was back now, he was working and back to taking lukewarm showers in his shitty apartment and having shitty breakfasts and mourning his life before more than he had in ages since he left that place and wandered, and wandered until 4 years later he happened across a familiar face that had a proposition he accepted.

6 years since his old life had died with Gabe, 4 years since he'd lost his arm, 2 years since he'd joined Ashe.

He somehow felt heavier as he wondered if any of em knew Gabe like he did. Missed Gabe like he did. Cared about him even now like Jesse did. He wondered about Genji, since he'd run off and joined the circus, and he wondered about Fio, and he wondered about Echo and even Moira. All of his old coworkers.

If this was what he'd become, he wondered what became of them.

He finished his last order, and knew it had to be delivered. He carefully wrapped the vase in delicate white paper, and his hands shook as he tied the blue ribbons around it in a way that only demonstrated how far off he was from his old life.

With silver marker pens he wrote in elegant cursive the message the order had requested on its tag.

Now that it was done, the Christmas rose arrangement finished, he had to head out into busy LA. He bid the gang a good night, and headed out into the nippy wind, holding the gift carefully in his arms.

There were only 3 days until Christmas left, and that meant the streets were absolutely jam-packed. Thankfully, he had an air about him that meant most folks parted for him like the red sea.

While he was on his way, he caught sight of a familiar face, the man sitting on a park bench on Jesse's way. Blue eyes caught his, and Jack held his dog closer to his chest. He seemed to be asking Jesse to stop for him.

Jesse shifted, debating that for a long moment, before he pressed forward. He had to get there before he was late.

He delivered his package uneventfully, and headed out to a bar to try and get his mind off the fact of the matter. He spent hours like that, before he finally had to get his ass home, trying to ignore the way Jack had looked like he very desperately wanted to talk to him.

As he stepped into his wrecked apartment on December 22nd, he thought Gabe would find him to be a pretty shitty legacy.

Jesse closed the door behind him, and kept the lights off, uncaring as he settled for the couch inside of the bed, and he passed out, already past drunk.

XXXXX

He'd turned off his alarm the next morning as soon as it had the audacity to ring, but he was sadly disturbed by someone having the audacity to knock on his door minutes after he'd slammed it off.

He rolled onto his back, staring up, and wondering why he'd been too lazy to just get to the bed. There was another round of furious knocks, and Jesse snarled at the door.

He stood in his boxers and marched over to the door, yanking it open.

Jack was facing him, seeming determined.

"What do you want?" Jesse grumbled, just short of outright aggression.

The man before him seemed a bit taken aback by the morning Jesse, but he crossed his arms. "You've been skipping your morning run." Jack told him like it was obvious. "Get clothes on. We're going now."

"You're not my boss." Jesse pointed out, eyebrows flat.

"No, but Gabriel was." Jack said with renewed determination. "Now get your clothes on."

"Gabriel's dead." Jesse bit out, angry that he now  _knew_  that Jack knew his old boss, removing any remaining doubts about where Jack had worked.

"I know."

"There's no point to doing this."

"I know."

"I haven't wanted to do it since y'all brought up those memories back up."

"I'm sorry Jesse."

People just kept apologizing to Jesse. He didn't know why. Gabe was dead 'cause of him.

Jack pushed his door open at his continued silence, scar glistening in the moonlight pouring in from Jesse's window. "Get on your clothes. We're going. You're in a pissy mood. And you always seem better after doing this."

Jesse spluttered, and Jack turned to him with a threatening finger pointed at his face. "Get clothes on, or I'm going to start cleaning."

That got Jesse moving, body performing the motions it'd gotten used to in the years since Gabe's been gone.

Jack forced him up off his ass and forced him to get out the door under threat of going through his shit around his house, and damn if it wasn't effective.

They ran side by side for once, and Jesse hated knowing Jack was going purposefully slow- he'd seen him run often enough to know Jack could easily outdo him, outpace him. But instead he stuck close to his side.

They reached the park.

"Why are you doing this?" Jesse lashed out, angry. "What do you get out of this?"

Jack seemed uncertain of how to answer him. He shifted from side to side for a long moment.

"Is it because you miss him?" Jesse snapped, looking at him for answers that he wasn't getting. "I can't change what he did for me. God knows I would have already tried."

Jack seemed distressed by that insinuation, and he shook his head. "Of course, I miss him, but  _Jesse_ ," He tried, but Jesse wasn't having any of it.

"Do you feel guilty about what happened to me? I'm sure Angela told you what happened afterwards." Jack's face broke into more open concern at that, and he seemed mute, and Jesse walked to the side, fingers beyond itching for a cigarette.

"Of course I do. I made the decision. I didn't know…what it would do, I was just trying to do right by Gabe." He attempted, and that incensed Jesse to no end.

"Right by Gabe? Right by  _Gabe?_  I can't go to anyone with what I served for." Jesse said, angry at the world and especially with Jack. "I lost my damn arm and I had to pay for it my damn self, since there's no fucking VA that would believe I served! How's that right by Gabe?"

Jack licked his lips, head hung low.

"That was 10 years of my life that I have no connection to anymore." Jesse tells him with all his pent up rage. "And I can't change that Gabe got himself shot for me. I can't change what I did before Gabe picked me up. But I do what I have to in order to get by, and I don't want Angela Ziegler coming in and trying to insert herself back in where she wrecked it all before."

"Jesse." Jack said firmly, eyes finding their renewed determination. "I didn't come because of Gabe. I came because of you. You- you're inspiring." He finally managed. "You're still going in spite of it all."

That made Jesse calm down, forced to stop in his tracks.

Jack shifted from side to side, before he took Jesse's silence to be permission.

"I've just…gone from place to place, since our shut down." Jack admitted quietly. "I've not held down a job. I've just had Trooper, and Ana checks in on me to see if I'm ever gonna move on, and we were both convinced that no, I wasn't. Its been 30 years since I had met Gabe and we tried to save the damn world together, and 6 years since Gabe left me to do that by myself." His hands clenched. "And I haven't been able to move forward at all. And then one day I meet someone here, someone in the same damn boat I'm in, and not only are they putting their life back together, but they're doing a damn good job of it too."

"So, I'm doing this for you, Jesse." He said firmly. "Now come on. You needed a shower, like…yesterday…"

XXXXX

While Jesse showered, Jack started taking the first steps to cleaning the path out of his apartment by packing up all his old equipment and putting them back into their proper places.

He exited, half naked, and Jack pushed him to his bedroom to get dressed. He still felt rather…dumbfounded by all this, but he didn't know how to turn Jack down. His words still were ringing in Jesse's ears, and he was taken aback by the sheer earnest way Jack forced him to put his head back on straight.

It wasn't until Jesse was at work that Jack let him off the hook, and he opened the door to find that it was already unlocked. Ashe was waiting for him, for once, and she seemed equally surprised, eyebrows raised high as she handed him a coffee, watching Jack head off into the distance.

She turned to McCree and crossed her arms, seeming to resolve something in herself before she spoke. "Now that, looks like a keeper McCree." She told him with a touch of amusement in her voice. "Now start talking- what went down that took you from brooding asshole cowboy to gob smacked like you are now."

McCree just wished she wasn't so right. He felt something hard in his chest skip a beat as he watched Jack turn back toward the store with a soft glance and something like care in his expression.

"Yeah, I think he might be one too."

XXXXX

Though they didn't see each other that evening, the next morning Jesse met Jack out front of his apartment complex, and the two ran side by side once again. It was…significantly less tense than it had been before. That morning, Jesse needed to go to the flower district, and he invited Jack there once more. Jack happily agreed, smiling at Jesse with quickly relaxing ease.

The place was crowded from people buying the last minute things for their homes, wreaths and holly and such. Jack seemed at ease walking through the place with him. Jesse was buying a handful of items for the Christmas party that night, when the seller in front of him smiled, her eyes lighting up.

"Oh, look who's under the mistletoe!" She pointed up above Jack and Jesse's head.

The two of them stared at each other, and Jack went extremely flush. Jesse hadn't even realized that Jack had been watching him, but before he had a moment longer to question it, he leaned forward and caught Jack's lips in a chaste kiss.

He drew back, and Jack's eyes were wide like saucers, his face an even darker red that trailed down to his neck. Jesse gave him an easy smile. "Oh, c'mon." He snorted. "You keep looking that cute and I'm gonna have to kiss you again." He teased, turning back to his business as Jack sputtered.

They eventually had to get going, with McCree's arms laden with flowers and stuff for work. Jack seemed embarrassed, but he had to ask. "You like…uhm, you like guys?"

"I reckon I do." McCree teased, snorting. "How old are you, Jack, to ask me it like that?"

Jack stammered, before he sighed. "I don't have a lot of experience, okay? I was too busy with work to really…do much like that." He eventually said, swallowing. "…you think I'm cute?"

"Well, attractive, really, but yeah." He gestured to Jack's body. "You're built, you've got the personality behind the looks, and there's a certain appeal to a man who can call me out when I'm on my shit again." He told Jack plainly.

They approached the store, and Ashe was waiting for them. Jack seemed unsure of what to say, and McCree didn't know if that meant Jack was interested in him too, or if he was just unused to such direct flattery.

Ashe eyed Jack appraisingly, before she spoke and stood tall once more. "Tonight there's a Christmas party. Come on down, it'll be fun. McCree typically doesn't run off like a dog with its tail between his legs." She teased him, opening the store for them. "And don't be shy if you want a coffee sometime, soldier boy."

Jack went real flush at that, and McCree rubbed the back of his neck. Ashe rolled her eyes, grumbling about hating having to play wingman, before she moved around and pushed them into the doorway, where there was another thing of mistletoe.

"He's single, and I need more people who can pull his head out of his ass for me." Ashe told Jack, arms crossed. "Now y'all get on with it,  _please_ , I have a business to run."

Jack seemed absolutely taken aback once more by that, and McCree softened. "You don't gotta, if you don't want to." He whispered to him, and Jack licked his lips, suddenly looking rather determined.

"Is she…serious?" Jack asked, seeming amused now. "Well…hm. I'll have to think about it…" He paused, before he pulled Jesse into a soft kiss. "You know, if you thought I was cute, you could have been…direct about it sooner."

Now it was Jesse's turn to sputter. "I've been real busy!" He pointed out, gesturing wildly. "Are you gonna come or not?"

"I'll come." Jack agreed, voice soft. "And we can…well, talk about this. I'm not a guy who you can just kiss and tell on, alright? I expect a date. And please, leave the cowboy getup at the door."

That comment made Jesse belt out a loud laugh as he protested, "It's not a get up! What happened to your talk of me being inspiring!" He exclaimed, shaking his head in disbelief.

"You definitely are a sight." Jack teased, a more natural smile on his lips. "All of you is. Then…is it a date?" He asked, blue eyes hopeful.

Jesse pulled Jack into a hug, separating and taking his hands into his own. "You know it. I'll see you tonight." He squeezed his hands, before releasing them. "And Merry Christmas!"

"We're seeing each other tonight, Jesse!" Jack chuckled as he waved, shaking his head as an irrepressible smile formed on both their faces while Jack walked to his apartment to get his own life started. "It's not even Christmas yet!"

As Jesse headed into Oddities and Ends, he knew that his problems weren't solved, and that he still had a lot of shit on his plate. But he felt lighter, somehow, and even though he hadn't been made to do things like this, and even though it was maybe wrong of him to try to be so soft after being so hard all those years, that there was a reason he kept pushing forward.

He bet he'd never seen a Christmas cactus that was actually from New Mexico before, he thought as he put a scarf and Santa hat on the fully grown cactus in the corner of the store.

With newfound happiness, he called on the triplets help and got right to work decking their western-styled oddities stores up for the holiday party that night, already feeling eager to see Jack's reaction to what he could pull off next.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Technically speaking Christmas season aint over where im at yet since the 3 kings haven’t come yet. So this is a valid Christmas continuation. 
> 
> A personal thanks to king carbonele /shotgun sinner for letting me finish this and giving my hands something to do!!!! I was genuinely just about to go: Now what??? With my time since ofc I get all my best ideas while im in the middle of projects and not in the aftermath, like…ever. 
> 
> On a serious note, if you enjoyed the first chapter and don’t like mcr76, that ending is just as fine as this second chapter. This was technically a scrapped plot that was originally plotted for happening with Angela visiting. However, if like me you enjoy Jesse and two grumpy old men, feel free to enjoy!

_Christmas Day_

For the first day in a long time, Jesse McCree woke up to the sound of an alarm clock that wasn't his own. He shifted, and found that he was currently located in a tangle of limbs, blankets and pillows. His back felt a little…achey, and he craned his neck up to get a better look at the scene.

A television in an unfamiliar apartment was still playing Christmas specials; but the sound had been turned low. He had someone held against his chest, kinda leaning on him for support. He blinked sleep out of his eyes, as memories of the night before came back to him.

It had been the day of the public party at Oddities and Ends, and customers had come for gingerbread house building that he and Ashe definitely had competed in as a team.

Jack had shown up right at the time as Jesse had to hold back a very irate Ashe from arguing with a teenager about whether or not she should be able to compete against her. Jesse knew the truth of the matter was that these were all things he and Ashe had been deprived of doing when they'd been younger, and Ashe wasn't going to let her hard work building a gingerbread ranch go to waste.

After the thing had been settled by the creation of two categories- adult entries and child entries, and the teenager had begrudgingly sorted himself into the 'adult' category, Ashe and him had still taken the crown, while a very cute, and mechanically gifted 11 year old won the child category with her gingerbread recreation of an OR-14 with functional joints and a removable supercharger. How she managed to make it still boggled all of their minds.

He'd then gone out for dinner with Jack, and they'd gone to a semi-nice spot, and mostly gorged on the house chips and the dips they'd ordered to save money. They did have an entree that they split, but… He shifted his spine to work the crick that had developed in it, as Jack's alarm blared in the background. The man mumbled in his sleep, and his dog- Trooper, he recalled Jack mentioning- barked at him from the floor.

Jack lifted his head and yawned, mumbling out a pleasant sounding, "good morning," that Jesse grunted a reply to. He had always been more of a night owl than an early bird, and it seemed Jack was more the opposite, as he untangled himself from their pile and got to his feet, heading to go feed Trooper, the small greyhound following him with tiny tapping feet down the wooden floor of the hall.

The sudden absence left Jesse time to process the situation. He'd stayed the night, and if the clothes that he was wearing were any indication, the most scandalous thing to occur would be Jesse borrowing a toothbrush to fix his morning breath.

Jesse stretched, forcing himself awake as he heard Jack padding back towards him, dressed in rather cute pajamas for a grown man. Jesse had borrowed his sweatpants, as he couldn't rightly sleep in his boxers or in the nude as he did typically on a first date.

"I'm making coffee." Jack told him quietly, a smile on his face and his eyes soft, the wrinkles around them crinkled up with the tender expression. "I had… a good night last night, Jesse." He murmured, shifting. "I'd love to do it again."

"Tonight's the more private party." Jesse murmured. "Store's closed, so we're using it for private purposes. After all, my favorite sofa is there. We're doing a white elephant gift exchange, if you'd like to come."

Jack's eyes lit up like the Christmas tree that was absent the apartment. "Can I bring Ana and, uhm, Angela?" He asked, knowing that Angela had hit a sore note with Jesse before.

"If they bring presents for the exchange, I don't see the harm." Jesse admitted quietly, sighing. "Ana seems nice enough, she even laughed at all my jokes. Angela…well, she and I  _were_  friends, I've sorta just avoided her like the plague ever since what happened with Gabe." He scratched his neck. "And I  _am_  still a bit sore about Genji getting offered a job with the main organization while folks like myself were told to fuck off."

"It was a decision out of my hands." Jack murmured. "I didn't think about the human cost. I just got the orders to disband it because Gabriel wasn't able to run it anymore. And I think…you're talking about Agent Shimada, right?" Jack paused for Jesse's confirmation, slow and a bit stiff. Jack's hands wrung together in his lap, unsure of what he should do with them. "Well, he had already requested a transfer." He admitted quietly. "That happened long before what happened in Poland."

Jesse made a face. "So it was a preplanned thing. Well, I didn't know which one would sting more, but I can say learning about it regardless stings pretty badly." He admitted, rubbing his arms. "Genji was gonna leave regardless." He stood, grabbing his clothes off the floor. "Well, I don't have my things to run in, and though we share a lot of things, I think that maybe I can skip running today." He smiled, trying to put on his best good-natured expression.

Jack nodded, gesturing him towards the kitchen. There was a pot on for coffee, and bread that Jack put into the toaster. He sat at his kitchen counter, his dog coming to sit at his feet. Jesse came on and sat beside him while their food cooked, feeling oddly comfortable in the yellow light of the kitchen, despite how much brighter it was than he was used to.

"I wish things had been different too, you know?" Jack murmured as he clasped his hands together on the counter. Jesse discreetly wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "I wish all the time, that…I could have been there, that I had been more delicate in breaking apart his organization. Or that I even knew what happened to him."

"I was there." Jesse told him quietly. "I thought I mentioned something about it to you?"

Blue eyes widened as Jack's scarred face turned toward him. "You were being serious? I thought it was metaphorical." Jack admitted, suddenly…seeming afraid of the knowledge. "What happened in Poland?"

Jesse suddenly felt under a weird type of pressure and he shifted from side to side, anxious and not liking it.

"Well…how much do you know?"

"There were scientists pinned down in a facility, and Talon was attempting to kidnap them. They were working on something relating to the closest God AI, and we knew that if their work fell into Talon's hands, the war could easily go on for another dozen years." Jack paused. "During the extraction, Gabriel's team was engaged by their sniper, the Widowmaker… and she shot Gabriel."

Jesse hurt to hear the facts of his final mission lain out so starkly for him.

"Well, that sounds about right." He murmured. "Until the last bit. It wasn't… Gabriel, she was shooting at." His hands wrung quietly. "I was desperate, I used… well, I was clearing out house, but as I was the only person able to return fire…She shot at me. Gabriel dove to take the bullet." He closed his eyes, balling his hands up at the memory of using deadeye, and the bodies falling all before him. Gabriel's included, like a stone that he just barely caught in his arms, blood seeping out of the wound like the blood that drained from his eyes at the use of his strongest ability, and the tears he told himself weren't falling. He felt his lips moving and saying Gabriel's name, as the man breathed deathly slow and his eyes were shut, his body dead weight in Jesse's arms. He couldn't remember hearing his voice, or the voices of Genji as he was dragged with Reyes back into transport, the scientists and their knowledge safe, Jesse was alive, but…

Gabriel's form, held still in his arms as their medic tried to evaluate his condition- unresponsive but breathing- and sent word to base that they needed Angela the moment she was available. The man's body losing its warmth and his breathing becoming rarer and rarer, as Jesse begged him to hold on. He knew he said the words but the memory lacked any and all sound.

All that had made up Gabriel physically was there. But he had closed his eyes and according to Angela, would never open them again. All that had made up Gabriel Reyes, all that he really was, was gone. He was dead to the world, and Jesse had to let his hand go and leave, knowing his body was transferred to some facility he never visited, and that he would never see him again.

Jack hugged him quietly, and they were both unaware of when they had started to cry.

"I'm sorry, Jesse." Jack murmured. "I miss him too. It wasn't your fault."

Jesse wanted to say otherwise, that it  _was_ his fault, to say that if he hadn't tried to play hero then he wouldn't have been targeted but…the incident was years ago. There was no changing it.

He breathed in, and out. And he tried to let the pain go just a little bit more. It didn't change what happened, but…nothing would. It wouldn't ever help to fixate on what he could have done differently. This was what happened. And it was over now.

"I wish a lot that…things were different." Jesse admitted softly. "He was…well, important to me. But he's…he's gone. I brought him back, I was there when Angela…made the call." He said, quiet. "He was still breathing, I remember being outraged at the very idea, because…there was no way that Gabe would die like that. He was still  _breathing_ , he couldn't be gone."

Jack nodded in agreement, putting his hand on Jesse's wringing hands that fidgeted with all their nervous energy and hurt.

"I miss him too. But I'm glad you're here, Jesse, and I'm glad I've met you." Jack told him softly, as he stood to get their toast from where it had popped up.

That had almost been therapeutic. Jack and all them had dredged up all these forgotten feelings, and…finally, he was getting some sort of release for them. He was able to speak about them, and put a name to em…well. It didn't feel good, but it did release some of the pressure in his chest.

He was handed a piece of toast, and the butter dish was passed towards him, complete with knife. Jack turned away from him as he poured them both coffees, seeming…put out. The knowledge that he'd never had before now likely didn't bring Jack that relief it brought Jesse to say it.

"I'm glad you met me, Jack. I'm glad you're here." Jesse told him as he held the butter knife a bit too firmly, eyes focused on the back of Jack's head. The man shook slightly at the sentiment being returned, and when he turned back around, he smiled at Jesse. They both needed a moment to wipe those tears from their eyes. Jack sat back down with him, handing him coffee as he drank his black, and Jesse added a few spoonful's of sugar before he took a sip.

They didn't speak much over breakfast, as Jesse thought about Gabriel and how he would take this…domestic life between him and Jack, who had apparently been close to him as well. He didn't ever know about Jack, nor anything about the parent organization aside from Angela. It had been a gaping absence in Jesse's knowledge about Gabe, and he imagined the reverse was true for Jack.

"You use too much sugar." Jack told him softly, almost leaning close enough for Jesse to feel where he would touch. "He must have poisoned your taste buds."

"Says the one who drinks it black." Jesse bit back, winking as he finished his breakfast and stood, stretching once more. "And Gabe used cream  _and_  sugar. And in an ideal world, creamer and sugar."

Blue eyes looked to him with amusement, chuckling at the memory. "He always did have a sweet tooth." Jack reminisced, smiling, before standing as well, detecting that Jesse was ready to head out.

"Thanks for breakfast, Jack. And for the date." Jesse said, before Jack pulled him into a hug that only took him partly by surprise. "I'll see you tonight, then?" Jesse murmured in the hug, which Jack returned kindly enough, the feeling comforting and grounding.

"You know you will." Jack teased lightly, brushing Jesse's hair back in a tender gesture. Jack closed the distance, and brought their lips together with soft confidence. "I might be a bit late. I'm working on submitting an application to college."

"Oh?" Jesse's smile widened as he heard that. "Heading back to school?"

"I think it's past time for me, don't you think?" Jack joked, shrugging. "I have job opportunities, but…all of them need a bachelors, and as it happens, joining the army at 18 means I didn't have a chance to get one of those."

"I'm all too familiar with that particular mess." Jesse laughed with him, scratching the back of his neck.

Jack nodded, finally heading back down to sit down to finish his breakfast, his dog settling back down calmly at his feet, and Jesse saw himself out, heart swelling in some kinda way as he imagined he wouldn't mind this kind of domestic life all that terribly.

XXXXX

When Oddities and Ends was closed, it usually was the time where Ashe and him were the most relaxed you'd see. They came in late that day, and wished each other a merry Christmas without giving much thought to it. B.O.B. was outfitted in a new sweater, and he was carrying his and Ashe's presents for the gift exchange.

McCree's was smaller, but he still had taken the time to get something for this. He placed it under the Christmas tree they'd set up in the corner, catching the present that Bars threw towards him as he walked through the door.

"Do we have anything to prep for?" Jesse asked lazily.

"Tax season." Ashe murmured, gesturing towards McCree's flower station. "Did you keep all your receipts like I asked you to?"

"Of course, Ashe." He chirped, heading over to his station where he worked at, and popped a squat, dropping to open the bottom drawer, taking out his rather enormous stack of receipts of all his purchases. Ashe's eyes widened.

"You're processing that," She told him with a pointed finger. "I ain't entering all that into the company's spreadsheet."

"That's fine, I just want B.O.B.'s help actually entering the data." Jesse sniffed, crossing his arms. Ashe made a face, before nodding.

"Fine," She agreed, the word sounding like it hit her in the wrong way and she didn't really want to say it at all. "It wouldn't be so bad if you had taken the time to add all that stuff up as you bought it, McCree." She told him with an eye roll. "I told you that last year, when we had to look back at our inventory and take our best guess at your expenses."

"Alright, alright. It'll get done, Ashe, don't get your knickers in a twist." He groused back as the triplets came in with their catered Christmas meal. "Christ, I did what ya asked," he muttered, put out by the fact she was right. "It wasn't like we had to worry about taxes and shit like that when we ran Deadlock together."

"How the mighty have fallen," Ashe murmured as she got back to working through her own expenses sheet, undoubtedly looking at revenue and trying to get a hold on what tax bracket they'd have to file under this time. "To be held accountable to something as loathsome and low as the IRS."

Bars was getting started on fixing up their meal in the café area, reheating components and setting the final touches on others.

Everyone got another coffee, as they settled into the drudgery that had to get finished before they were able to party again.

XXXXX

As time ticked by, and McCree had said so many numbers that he could hardly keep staring straight at receipts and reading out the numbers for B.O.B. to take down, Ashe finally called it a day sometime in the afternoon as it headed towards evening with the winter sun trailing westwards.

"Alright, alright, stick a fork in me, I'm done." She announced, cricking her neck. "We can do this again soon, that pounded out a good deal of the actual work involved there." She murmured, stretching. "For now, I've been smelling that Christmas ham and I'm damn hungry for it." She rubbed her hands together.

"Agreed." McCree hummed as he eagerly stood up, gathering what remained of his pile and putting it back in it's bottom drawer, stuffing the ones he'd already managed to get through into a plastic baggie, labeling it, 'FINISHED', and stuffing it in the drawer as well.

"Is your boyfriend coming?" Ashe asked him as she adjusted her sweater and hat, and McCree flushed slightly as he helped clean up the papers that had gotten spread out everywhere on the main table they were pulling out to eat.

"He'll be by tonight." Jesse admitted. "But he said later, but Ana and Angela will likely make an appearance as well."

Ashe raised an eyebrow. "The one's who came to that poker night where you ran off like a sinner with the devil at your heels out to Arizona?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jesse's face reddened and Ashe laughed at him, the sound echoing around. "Alright, alright. The Ana one was a good time, and the other one seemed nice enough." She agreed. "Just don't bolt again, okay?"

"Hey, if Gabriel Reyes, the man who put us all in prison, what, all that time ago showed up, you'd have bolted too." Jesse accused, pointing that out. "We all have our bad memories."

"You'd have been fine if he had showed up, then?" Ashe asked, unimpressed.

Jesse paused, thinking about that honestly. "I think if Gabriel Reyes walked in, I would be the opposite of fine, but I wouldn't run." He told her plainly. "But that's 'cause he died 6 years ago." He shrugged. "He was my boss."

"Ah." Ashe hummed, folding her arms as she thought about that. "And you mentioned he got shot for you before, I recall."

For the first time since it happened, McCree didn't feel the sharp pinch of guilt in his stomach as that was said aloud. He just nodded and looked out towards the window. "That's…well, that's right." He agreed.

He and Ashe set the table with the gang, and they settled into comfortable silence. For once, they didn't have to bitch each other out. They had the comfort of food and a good year of business. Ashe and him weren't how they were, but maybe that was for the better. She was still a hardheaded bitch when she wanted to be, but things had cooled off. Even bringing up Gabriel by his name hadn't been grounds for an argument between them.

As they ate apple pie, Jesse wondered when they actually started being friends again instead of whatever strained thing they'd been after he showed up at her mansion as she burnt it to the ground, Jesse drunk as a skunk as he patted her back in solidarity and an apology he couldn't muster out loud.

XXXXX

As they cleaned up from their group Christmas meal, a familiar blonde appeared in the window, and she pushed open the door, dressed in a blue and white sweater and holding a small gift in her hands. "Hello," She announced, eyes finding Jesse's and shifting awkwardly.

It was clear she was giving him the time to reconcile her presence, but he just took a breath and approached. He put a smile back on his face, and nodded as her eyes widened as she put the facts of the case together herself.

"Hey, Angela." Jesse said, scratching the back of his neck as he finally decided to talk to her. "Sorry about running." He didn't specify when he ran, because it was a nebulous thing- he'd been running ever since she'd broken the news to him.

He didn't have to, as Angela seemed to question boundaries for a moment, before he opened his arms to her for a hug.

The woman only hesitated a second, before she moved in and hugged him back eagerly.

"It's good to see you," He murmured, as Angela pulled back, eyes teary.

"I could say the same." She told him, eyes finding his prosthetic, softening but not wanting to draw attention to what had changed between them in the time that had passed.

"Careful, Jesse." Ashe said absently as she gestured up to the doorway. "Someone's caught under the mistletoe."

Angela and him laughed, but just shook their heads. Jesse leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on her cheek.

She paused at that, looking to him with a raised brow. Jesse snorted at her suspicious expression that focused in on him, pursing her lips as she thought it over carefully.

"Why not on the lips?" She asked, folding her arms over her chest.

Jesse chuckled, rubbing his neck. He knew that she'd always gotten a kiss on the lips before, and he didn't want her thinking it was some leftover resentment there.

However, he didn't want to say he and Jack were an item, because they weren't, yet. They'd just gone on a date, and were planning on another. Terminology could come later.

"I'm getting kisses from Santa Claus tonight." He finally settled on, watching her eyes get big. "Lets jus' leave it at that."

"… Who, Ashe?" She tried, looking to the albino woman across the way, sitting and drinking a coffee as B.O.B. and the others cleaned. Ashe choked on her drink, having to cough it up on her nice Christmas sweater, and McCree belted out laughing.

"Nah,  _that_  ship sailed a long time ago." He said as he collected himself, the woman turning a bright red that stood out fabulously against her pale skin. He chuckled as he waved a hand at her to reassure her. "I'll tell you in due time, when the dust's settled some, Angie. Let's just say my current prospects are a bit late to the party, and a bit shy.

Angela's eyes widen some more at that, after all, the woman wasn't dense. "Just make sure that you and Jack come talk to me before you leave, alright?" She told him clearly, seeming unsure of how to phrase what she wanted to. "I don't want to spoil the mood, but…it's not even bad news, I just…you should hear it together."

That made McCree raise brow, lips screwing up to the side as he contemplated what she could say to either of them to make her this cagey.

She tried looking as innocent as possible, handing him her small wrapped gift. "Anyways, here's this. Where's the eggnog? I've missed your brew and I know you've got to have some."

McCree sighed, taking the gift to put into the pile. "It's over on the bar top, ask Bars for a glass."

She grinned as she was allowed to get away, waving as she passed him to get into the bar. "Thank you, Jesse, hope you have fun with  _Santa Claus_  later."

McCree rolled his eyes as he chuffed out soft laughter. "You know I will. You know me well enough to know I can be a bit impatient on getting to the fun bit, so place your bet. I'm hoping I'm gonna get an answer tonight."

As Angela poured herself a large glass of eggnog, sampling a taste to see if it had already been spiked before adding a shot herself. "Not necessary, I think I've already won- it's not happening."

"Shots fired!" Ashe laughed as she came up the staircase from the bathroom; having changed her shirt, and Jesse hushed her up.

"You know nothing, John Snow." He poked a finger in her direction, grumbling quietly at her accusation.

"Please leave dated references at the door," Angela requested faux-innocently, making Ashe chuckle, her shoulders going up and down as she stared straight at him, the look in her eyes not unlike a cat that caught a meddlesome bird, but that look was wiped off her face as Angela continued with, "Including whatever it is you're wearing."

"Hey!" Ashe piped up, indignant, as Jesse shook his head, disappointed with Angela.

"Fucking rude," He tsked, amused. "I'm the one who arranged this here party," Jesse reminded.

Angela held up a finger to his mouth, leaning over the bar. "Shhh, I'm gonna get more eggnog." She whispered to him. "And if  _you're_  not after her, I hope you know its only fair game I get a shot."

McCree leaned in conspiratorially, one side of his mouth quirked up in a smile, gaze half lidded. "You're welcome to try," He invited demurely. "She can play real hard to get when she wants to. And say what she will, I don't think she's quite over me."

Angela's lips quirked up in a polite smirk, her blue eyes mischievous even as the rest of her demeanor didn't hint to her intentions. "I'll take that as a challenge then." She murmured, patting his shoulders. "Don't let me leave without talking to you and Jack." She reminded as they pulled away.

He waved a hand, rolling his eyes. "Alright, alright. I getcha, now when's Ana gonna show up so I can kick someone's ass at cards?"

"I wouldn't bet on that so easily." Ana's voice rung out as the bell of the door rang, and Jesse shrugged.

"I don't know, I like to think I'm pretty good at em."

"Pretty good won't be good enough tonight." She warned, pulling two presents out of her bag. "Jack's going to be late," She explained, as Ashe sidled over to take the final two additions to the pile.

"He told me he might be." Jesse explained, rolling his eyes as Angela tried her best to flirt shamelessly at Ashe, the other woman- for all her bravado- unused to being the object of flirtatious advances. "Thanks for coming in his stead. We'll wait on the place to be cleaned up, if you just wanna run a quick card game while we wait."

Ana agreed to that easily, Jesse getting them both eggnog, and things settled for a quiet night.

They gave Jack another hour to show up, but Ashe  _was_  notoriously impatient when it came to the materialistic things. In the meantime they played cards, and at some point because Angela was playing just dumb enough to fool Ashe, Ana and Jesse teamed up against Ashe and Angela.

After a few rounds, they wound up finally opening up their gifts. B.O.B. was responsible for handing out gifts blindly, able to know which gifts what person gave and exceedingly good at using a RNG to find the optimal outcome.

They all sat patiently, Ana drinking a cup of tea as the rest of them had some type of alcoholic beverage. They were handed out their gifts, and Jesse got one of the packages that Ana brought. He curiously fingered it, as he saw his gift was left out for Jack. He and B.O.B. looked at each other quietly as B.O.B. held a gift from the triplets.

Things were quiet as people started opening up gifts. Ashe's gift was debatably funny; as she had likely bought it only thinking that it was going to be a gag gift for one of her employees that she'd known for ages. However, when Angela opened up the fuzzy pink handcuffs and sheriffs hat after a night of romantically pursuing her, Ashe went bright pink.

There was a lot of laughter at her expense, and it was a testament to the therapy that Ashe went to at B.O.B. and McCree's insistence that she didn't blow up at anyone.

The Triplets got B.O.B's, Bar's and Ana's gifts. Ashe got Angela's gift, while Ana and Bars got the other two gifts from the Triplets. Jesse fingered Jack's gift, before deciding to open it. Inside was a gift card for some clothing store nearby, and Jesse balked. Why would he need one of these? Furthermore, why the fuck would B.O.B. give him it, undoubtedly knowing what was inside?

Jesse stared at B.O.B., and the omnic sweated at the silent accusation. So there was a double agent in the coup, after all.

Ashe, embarrassed as she was from Angela wearing the sheriffs hat and badge, enjoyed the nice, if a lot more general gift of a maintenance kit she was sure as hell gonna use on her Viper.

Jesse eyed her up, and Angela flushed, knowing full well he knew it was always her go-to gift for this time of year, considering she didn't condone violence and never knew what to get any of them.

Just then, a knock came from the door.

Jesse was on his feet in a heartbeat, prompting confusion from Angela and Ana, and making Ashe say in utter disbelief,  _did you do a fucking barrel roll?_ He opened the door, ignoring them all as he saw Jack dressed warmly for the night, the world dark outside.

"Hey! Sorry, we just finished opening presents." Jesse told him, but leaned in anyways. "But that's okay. I have one right here. Am I gonna get caught kissing Santa Claus tonight?"

Jack snorted, face crinkling in amusement at Jesse's eagerness. "If you play your cards right, you may get more, but we'll see." He teased, but kissed him anyways. There were hoots of appreciation at the show, and Jack stepped closer, to hide from view. "Has it been fun? I'm sorry for being so late…"

Jesse nodded, pulling Jack into a hug.

"Sorry for leaving you on your own, I know Angela might have been early and you two have history, but I came as soon as I could."

Jesse just shook his head, squeezing Jack to reassure him. "I'm only sorry that we got on with everything before you showed up." He told him calmly.

Jack just hugged him back, quiet. "You're allowed to have fun, Jesse. I don't mind that you get along with my friends. I'm happy, in fact. Means Ana has less reason to stick her nose directly into my business."

"Oh, 'cause she'll be sticking her nose in mine, is that it?" Jesse asked, sniffing in faux offense.

He dropped Jack's gift into his hands, and Jack smiled, deciding to pocket it carefully. "I'll not hold up the party any longer." Jack murmured.

"Wait," Angela said, standing, removing her sheriff's hat and losing the funny demeanor she'd taken on with Ashe, to everyone's surprise, and perhaps to Ashe's relief and subtle disappointment. "I have something to tell you three." She said, eyes soft. "Can I speak with you all outside?"

Jack and Jesse looked at each other, and Ana's brow was creased. No one liked how that sounded, but they all exited the shop, the bell ringing as Jesse opened the door and let them all out. He leaned back against the door to prevent Ashe or anyone from eavesdropping on this, as Angela seemed…very quiet. She didn't know how to start, and so she just sighed.

"Alright. I'm…glad I can talk to all of you at once. I didn't want to do this earlier because there were a lot of uncertainties, but…things are coming down, and I feel confident with having this discussion now." She said, clearing her throat.

"Gabriel Reyes is alive." She said, blue eyes earnest, and Jesse felt his heart beat in his throat, his hands sweaty. He, well, he figured Angela wasn't going to pull the plug on him, but…she had said that he was brain dead, but if she was talking about this now then… "And he's progressing back to a more conscious state. He's not- well, not fully recovered, but he's on a pathway towards recovery."

Jack, Ana and Jesse were all frozen. They had all known Gabriel, they had all mourned Gabriel- and they had all thought recovery was out of the question and had assumed that was his end, even if his body was maintained.

Angela licked her lips. "And, well…Jesse, you're his legal surrogate. You were, and still are, the person he named to make the decisions for him going forward from this point."

That was a surprise he sure as hell didn't expect, and it certainly didn't fucking feel like a Christmas present either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me on twitter or yell at me here. Next chapter will actually have gabriel reyes in it, god willing,


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *breakdances quietly* good morning yall and uh enjoy this mess i got some requests for Gabriel and Jesse to kiss so they do but ;) i have to make it a Slightly angsty reunion. 
> 
> Work starts back up tomorrow and like. thank god. but these chapters won't be burst out quite as fast bc of that.

There wasn't quite a sensation as hard to describe as waking up when your eyes were already opened. A redhead loomed over him, holding his eyelids opened. She hummed as their gazes met, before flashing a bright light at him. He winced, the feeling uncomfortable.

Then again, everything was uncomfortable. His chest ached, his lips felt dry, and he felt like something enormous was caught down his throat. He felt disconnected from his body.

Cool fingertips brushed over his forehead, and hesitantly he looked back to who was touching him, his chest expanding uncontrollably.

"I knew that this wouldn't be enough to actually kill you. Those wretched doctors hardly knew what they were doing, but they did make one death repellant creation."

Her words were absolute gibberish, and his lips stayed still against the tube in his mouth. His jaw hurt from holding his mouth open like this.

He blinked, and followed her movements around him.

"I can't, of course, just try and remove you from your equipment." The woman continued speaking jargon, and her fingers clasped his chin, a thumb rubbing something over his lips that soothed the dryness there. "That'd be dangerous to you. I can't well say if you're breathing on your own or not Reyes. However, given your current status and that Jesse and all the others have abandoned you to this, well."

Moira pat Gabriel's shoulder in her typical cold, just-shy-of-affectionate way, "I'll see to it you come out of this in one piece."

XXXXX

It was slow work. At least, it  _felt_  slow, even grueling at times. The redhead was his main non-doctor visitor. He felt that he recognized the blonde that came and went, but every time the door opened and he was there to see it, he always found himself looking for someone else. Someone that he couldn't place the reason  _why_  he should be there, or why he felt dread at him not being there. He always looked for brown hair and brown eyes and a soft drawl that'd been worn away over the years…but…

He never came.

It was always just the redhead, who he began to notice had a thing for sneaking in. One second she wasn't there, the next she was standing over him, checking his vitals and filling out her own sheets that weren't the same ones that the doctors brought in.

She always chattered, which was interesting to say the least. The woman worked on him in different ways than the others that came in. Those people he barely felt moved his arms and legs like the ragdoll he was. His midnight companion was more hands on and keen on testing her next solution on him.

He'd probably be terrified if she was exactly 3 degrees less stable or if he was 3 degrees more connected to reality, but she did produce results. He stopped feeling like he was an empty ragdoll. He did finally learn her name.

Moira. It rang a few bells, but it was difficult to say what they were for.

He was able to understand more of what she said to him. She talked too fast most of the time, but he didn't feel like he was lost in time anymore.

The doctors that he occasionally saw in the day, worn out by Moira's night activities, noticed too.

The blonde came in one morning with her coat on, and said to no one and yet, to him, that they would be taking out his respirator. They had determined he no longer needed life supportive devices. He could breathe on his own.

Their removal was intensely uncomfortable and chafed in all sorts of ways he couldn't explain.

His eyes flashed to the doorway, looking expectantly, needing him to be there.

The frame remained empty and unfilled.

Once the tubes were out of him, and the doctor chattered on about something he couldn't care to follow at that time, he felt emptier than ever.

The blonde called to Gabriel, using the name he'd long figured was meant for himself. He blinked and focused his gaze on her face.

She was a pretty thing, definitely familiar in that same way Moira was. Her blue eyes were surprised, and she decided to move around him, keeping his gaze in the meanwhile.

Gabriel was conscious. And now Angela Ziegler knew.

Moira was pleased with his progress, and more than any of the others pushed him. The others kept him in bed all the time, and occasionally had him moved in a wheelchair. Moira introduced things he was entirely foreign to, but…were so incredibly useful he couldn't rightly tell her to not teach him these things about himself.

He couldn't make himself stand up, and he wanted to use the restroom. Moira simply demonstrated his alternate form.

"You've forgotten a lot, Gabriel. But I suppose that's alright. So much has changed, and it's not just you." She murmured, voice slow. "Just…feel your body change its shape. If you can't move it as it is now, move it like…this. Moira vanished, before popping up across the room. He felt a distant kick of distaste, but it was easily ignorable.

His body weighed him down. He so often felt like he was just…floating outside it.

The next moment he found himself without that body holding him down. It shocked him so badly that he rematerialized, and Moira had to catch him. He stood stiff as Frankenstein's monster, and felt every bit like another rendition of him in a movie. Moira held him steady, his knees locked stiff, his legs feeling otherwise like jello beneath him.

"Alright, that was a good first try. But you'll need to hold it longer, alright? Rematerialize in the bathroom." Moira instructed, directing him to the doorway. She waited until he was weightless, and he watched as she opened the door for him, his view of the scene almost dreamlike. He rematerialized in the bathroom, and Moira clapped politely for him.

Independence tasted like whatever it was he'd been fed the night before. He found his face in the mirror after he relieved himself. He didn't recognize himself, but he knew that's what he must look like. His hair was grown out and down, scars that he did recognize on him. There was a small scar on his forehead that he didn't recognize or recall. Moira walked towards him.

The woman was taller than him, and she noticed where his gaze had settled.

"That's what did this to you, Gabriel." She murmured, patting his back. "The source of all of your troubles. The human brain really is so  _very_  fragile." She seemed to pause here, and she sighed. "But, back to bed now. I have to set up your equipment again quickly before the systems all come back online."

Gabriel looked towards the bed- his prison. Skull designs flickered over the displays of the monitors. Moira gently pushed him to the bed, and he was compliant in following her example.

He breathed out black smoke, and Moira hummed as she helped him down once more. "Ah, try and keep that a secret." She emphasized. "I would hate for our guardian angel to think something was wrong with you. She might damage your systems, and it could be the very thing that's making you progress."

He saw the black smoke once more, and he breathed it back in, nodding understandingly.

"Thank you, Moira." He gargled out something that didn't actually sound like what he meant to say, but Moira simply looked delighted at his words.

He closed his eyes, and slept once more.

XXXXX

"You can't just tell us this and not expect us to ask to see him." Ana chastised honestly. Angela meekly sat in a chair, drinking a coffee as Jack paced around the room and Jesse sat on his favorite couch, feeling every kind of emotion in the rainbow about the situation at hand.

"I don't know what to tell you. I knew that I wanted you to be together for this, and, originally I was just going to tell you and Jack but then when we found  _Jesse_  I had to tell him as well." Angela's voice was meek, and Ashe was sitting behind the bar, the coffee machine going as Jesse tried to sober up even though he was already too sober for his liking considering how many shots he'd had. "The hospital just closed to visitors. Gabriel will still be there in the morning."

"Yes, but it's been 6  _years_ , Angela." Jack protested, looking at her and to Jesse, brow crinkling. "You just said that Jesse's responsible for Gabriel, can't he go to him?"

Angela flinched, but she nodded. "Yes, if Jesse wanted to go see Gabriel, as his surrogate, he could go see him now."

Jack looked to him, blue eyes glistening with eagerness and anticipation that almost made Jesse sick to watch- he felt like he was going to burst with that nervous energy as well.

"I'm trying to sober up first, Jackie." Jesse croaked. "Fuck. Remind me again of what surrogate entails because I'm only coming up with rearing someone else's kid."

Angela bit her lips. "It just means that you're the person Gabriel wrote down as the one who would be his guardian in these cases." Angela explained. "Technically speaking, now that you've been located and Gabriel is off life support, it's your job to decide where he goes from here. He could be transferred into hos…into another facility that specialized in…well, treatment for his current condition." Angela faltered around terminology. "Or he becomes your responsibility more literally. After training around key aspects, you would bring him home."

Jesse balked. "Fuck." He swore, looking at his hands. "I don't wanna put him into some fucking facility, there's no way Gabe would want me to do that for him but…" He felt helpless. "I live on the 3rd floor in a messy, not really equipped apartment." He was honest. "I don't know if I'm capable of…giving him a good life there."

Jack made a harsh noise, face crinkling. "We haven't even seen him yet Jesse, we can't make the decision  _here_." He gestured around, before looking to Angela. "He's woken up, then?"

Angela swallowed. "Coma victims will have cycles of sleeping and waking, Jack." She told him softly. "Recently he's been displaying more stable and normal brain activity. We removed his tubes recently and…he followed me around the room with his eyes. Additionally, he displayed purposeful discomfort and even though he's not made many moves, it seems on the outside that he's showing signs of at least minimal consciousness." She rubbed her arms. "That just means he's…well. There."

"Has he spoken?" Jack asked, and Angela shook her head.

"No."

"Moved? Done anything?"

"I'm sorry, Jack. He only recently started showing any noticeable outwards signs of improvement."

Jack seemed to despair, and he found his pacing end. Jesse looked up at him, and pulled him down to the couch. Jack's face was stricken. He put his hand around Jack's and squeezed, wondering when, exactly, Angela knew the night was going to turn out like this.

He still felt the thrum of alcohol in his head, and he sighed, frustrated. "Fuck. I won't be able to drive tonight." He murmured, even as he finished his coffee.

"I can drive us." Ana told them, eyes soft. "I've not had anything to drink. Jesse, do  _you_  want to do this tonight?"

Jack looked to Jesse with so much desperation in his eyes. Jesse felt overwhelmed.

"Angela, would it just be me? Or can the others come too."

She faltered at that. "Well…considering he's been mostly kept to himself, I wouldn't advise  _everyone_ , but…two people in the room at a time is something he's accustomed to." She nodded, resolving whatever difficulty she felt inside herself. "He will likely be asleep right now, though." She reminded, rubbing her arm.

"Jesse, you don't have to do this right now." Ana told him, arms crossed as she stared Jack down. "This is a lot to take in."

Jack shifted under her stare and Jesse squeezed his hand in his own.

"He'd want me to be there." Jesse stated firmly. "I'm his second in command. I've not been there this whole time." The thought hurt, but he knew why he left. He knew what had kept him from this. "He'd want me there." He felt his resolve solidify in his chest. "Ana, can you take us there? Gabriel's waited long enough."

Ana nodded, looking to Jack. Jack seemed to have the stuffing taken out of him at Jesse's words.

He stared owlishly at Jesse. "You were his second?" Jack asked, back to that quiet he'd had when Angela had revealed that it was Jesse that would be responsible for Gabriel, not Jack. "… Do you want me there?"

Jesse didn't like the edge to Jack's tone there. He took both his hands and faced Jack.

"You said the other day I was doing shit and had a life together, and while that's true, you've seen I also completely don't have my life together." He licked his lips. "You have parts of your life together that I haven't even been able to look at. I want you there, Jack." He squeezed his hands again.

He paused, voice going soft. "I don't think I can do this alone. So I need help. If you're willing."

Jack's eyes looked like he was on the verge of tears, but the man leaned forward and hugged him.

"I am, Jesse. Let's go see Gabriel."

XXXXX

Jesse hated hospitals on sheer principle, and that only added to his growing dread of approaching the place. It wasn't like activities stopped at night, there was just less people around. Angela got them in and through, and Jesse was absolutely nervous about the whole lot of what was happening.

Angela stopped them outside the door, and she looked to Jesse. "Alright, I'm going to go inside and check on him, and then I'm going to call you in, alright? You may bring Jack, if you'd like… if he's asleep, I'll just come open the door again and you can come in quietly."

She opened the door, and vanished inside. Jack found Jesse's eyes, and they both looked equally anxious- terrified of whatever it was they could encounter there.

Angela called from within, seeming to have relaxed. "He's awake, come on in, Jesse."

Jesse swallowed, squeezing Jack's hand. "Alright, let's see him."

He pushed in first, brows furrowing at the sight of Gabriel laid up in the hospital bed. He almost balked at the image, the man's hair grown out past his shoulders and the scar left from the shot prominent if fading on his forehead. Unlike the man he'd left all those years ago, there were no bulky machines around him keeping him alive. There were monitors, but nothing scary or otherwise reminding that Gabriel had been shot in the head.

No, there was nothing but a scar now.

Jesse and Jack were frozen for a moment, as Angela moved around Gabriel and checked various things around him. Sleepy brown eyes followed her, his head moving as well.

"Gabe." Jesse almost choked, seeing him now almost overpowering him with heartache and… Brown eyes were now staring at him, just shy of empty. They had left a million things unsaid, and Jesse couldn't look towards Jack. They weren't something yet, but he and Gabe…they'd been something.

They'd been a  _lot_  of something, and Jesse took a few careful steps towards him. "Hey, Gabe." Jesse croaked, his voice failing him. "Oh wow, look at you." He murmured, trying to put on his best smile and feeling that slip as well. "You scared me there, something real fierce."

He was now in touching range of Gabriel, and the man was looking up at him from the bed, otherwise frozen.

He reached out to touch his cheek, and had to freeze again as Gabriel's expression went from blank, partially curious, to a full on  _scowl_. His lips split and revealed sharpened teeth that made Jack and Angela gasp, black smoke leaking from the edges as he growled, low and guttural at Jesse's attempt to pretend the last 6 years hadn't happened.

Jesse knew what that was.

"Oh, hush up, you'll scare the others being so mean." Jesse chastised him without heat, the budding hope and affection leaving his chest as he slipped into something more professional.

He looked at his hands. "Meet Reaper, Jack, Angela." He said, without waiting for them to ask. "Or what the SEP called the REAPER project, I guess." He crossed his arms, looking away from Gabriel, realizing it had been very stupid to think that…to even believe Gabriel wouldn't know, wouldn't realize Jesse's guilt.

He'd been awake, and Jesse hadn't been there.

He of course had a million excuses, but right now, that's all they were. Jesse had left, and worse, Jesse had run. Angela hadn't wanted him to run, he'd just been out of a job. He'd left Gabe in the same boat, but worse, unable to make any decisions for himself.

He was very tired, and his hands itched for a smoke. "Alright. I get it Gabe, you're mad at me. That's fine- I can't fault you for that. I ran. But…I'm done running." He told him honestly. "I get you might not want me here, but… unfortunately for botha us, you're stuck with me. So put away the teeth and claws."

Gabriel scowled at him still, but the claws and teeth did go away. His reddened eyes glared at Jesse for another long moment, before he relaxed.

"What…what is that, Jesse?" Jack asked, bewildered.

"The SEP, like I said."

"How do you even know about," Jack started, before he returned to the matter at hand. "The SEP didn't do  _that_  to me."

"It didn't do it to him either at  _first_ ," Jesse clarified, feeling exhaustion seeping into his bones and twitching for a cigarette. "It started killing him first, and then Moira did something for it." He waved a hand. "Or somethin' like that."

He looked to Gabriel morosely, as Gabriel stared at him distrustfully, almost hatefully. "Yeah, I get it bud. Me too." He said, sardonically. "I feel the same way about me, can't fault ya."

Jack stepped forward, and in front of Jesse, making Gabriel's line of sight leave Jesse and refocus on Jack. He calmed nearly instantly, and Jesse hated how it felt to see that. They'd been together for how many years, and now Jesse would be known for what he did when he thought Gabe was beyond him forever. Great.

Jack smiled at Gabriel, shifting awkwardly as he approached. "Oh, don't look at him like that." Jack chastised more gently and less directly. "What's there to be mad about? We're here now, Gabriel." Jack murmured, and put a hand on Gabriel's. Brown eyes stared at them for a long time, and Jack's thumb rubbed at the skin of Gabriel's hand. His silence unnerved Jesse, but Jack didn't seem bothered. Jack hummed as he decided to be bold and sit down on the bed with Gabriel.

"It's been a long time, huh." Jack said, conversationally with Gabriel. "We've not been here for you. But we're here now. We're sorry that we weren't here earlier."

Gabriel's eyes seemed sad, and he made a soft noise.

"We're here for you now, Gabriel." Jack promised. "But you're probably tired, aren't you? You were asleep before we showed up." He chuckled. "We'll be back tomorrow, we promise." Jack squeezed Gabe's hand.

Gabriel seemed taken by Jack, but Jesse- even as he looked away, caught in guilt- found that when he went to steal a glance, Gabriel was looking at him as well. As though he wondered if Jesse meant that too.

Jesse wavered, but he eventually nodded. "Yeah, I promise. We'll be back in the morning Gabe." He used his still human hand and helped cover Gabe back up in blankets.

They let Angela finish up the night check, and exited the room, leaving Gabriel there once more.

Outside, they all reconvened. Angela seemed bright, cheerful even as she began. "Well, he was incredibly active tonight, that was all excellent news for his future prospects." She said, before she saw the hopeless look on Jesse's face, and how Jack was shifting from side to side, nervous energy pent up inside him still. Ana had been let in on some of the details, and she seemed just as uncertain about the new reality.

She gave them all the moment to recollect themselves, before she began again. "There's no reason for Gabriel to be in this hospital anymore." She started, looking at her hands. "I think I mentioned that earlier. Meaning, he needs to be transferred to the next phase of care. That can either be with you, Jesse, or it can be in some sort of facility."

"He'll have to come with me." Jesse said plainly, not leaving any room for argument. "He still has access to the Reaper stuff. That'd be dangerous to sic on some poor facility for disabled adults."

Angela was taken aback at his response, but nodded. "Right. Well, it will be good for him as well. Regardless of…the emotional side of things, that was the most interactive I have seen Gabriel since the incident. Beyond responding to us being there, he had specific responses for you two that correspond to deeper brain activity."

Jack was at least relieved to hear Jesse was accepting him, but that left other things in the air. "How's he going to get around? Where's he going to sleep? He wasn't even  _talking_  and neither Jesse nor I are trained therapists and could probably use some of those as well?"

Jesse held up a hand. "Jack, bud. It's okay." He took the other man's hand into his own. "He'll prolly need a wheelchair. Debatably if he has access to all his old mess, he can smoke his way around. He'll sleep in my bed, I have a couch. I'm sure the hospital has options for us because there's more things that need therapy than just talking for him." He was no nonsense; he had a duty and a responsibility. Gabe was his to take care of.

"You're  _very_  calm about the whole smoke thing," Jack told him quietly.

"You ain't seen all our party tricks Jack." Jesse shrugged without changing facial expression. "Its just part of Gabe, far as I can remember. It's not gonna hurt him."

"Not going to- you said it was killing him earlier!" Jack pointed out, arms crossed.

"Yeah, and then Moira fixed it, probably."

" _Probably_?"

"I'm not a scientist but I ain't sure if I could call what the fuck they were doing  _science_  anyway."

"That's enough." Ana finally cut in, Angela too meek to do so now. "We're going to get dinner, and then we're going to bed. We'll reconvene in the  _morning_ , when you're not all in various stages of drunk, and  _Jesse_ , drinking coffee does  _not_  make you sober."

She forced them all out of the hospital, making them pile back into her car. Jack seemed tense and stressed, but as things progressed, as Jesse went real quiet all over again, started shutting down the way Jack recognized from their first failed poker night… he acted.

They really  _were_  too drunk to have done this. Jack recognized it as anxiety drained out of him, leaving him in an awkward stage of awareness with that buzz going through him. He felt guilt now, because Ana, and Angela had been right to try and make Jesse wait. Without asking permission, he climbed on Jesse's lap. His instincts didn't tell him wrong, as Jesse wrapped his arms right back around him and held him there.

"I'm sorry." They both said at the same time, and that made them both tense up, and look to each other. Jack settled on Jesse's lap as Jesse looked to him owlishly.

"What are you apologizing for Jack?" Jesse asked, and Jack shifted.

"I could ask the same question, Jesse." He murmured, before he leaned against him again, holding him. "We could have, should have waited to do this. So what are you apologizing for?"

Jesse was taken aback, but he put his chin on Jack's shoulder as he squeezed them together. "My attitude. I started disengaging when Gabriel started acting up. At the very least, I have to hold it together."

"It'll be okay, Jesse. How about you come to my place again tonight?" Jack asked, hopeful. "We can…start figuring out what this might look like."

"Your place?" Jesse murmured, before agreeing. "Yeah, sure. Your place is a good starting point as any."

XXXXX

The next morning found them in Jack's bed instead of the couch. Jack's dog laid at the foot of the bed, curled up against them both and waited for Jack to wake up.

So yesterday wasn't some crazy fucked up dream. Unfortunate. Jesse stared up at the ceiling, and wrestled an arm out from Jack to rub his eyes in disbelief.

Gabriel Reyes was alive. He was alive, and awake, his brown eyes focused on them both yesterday and he'd been cognizant of who Jesse was. Maybe even what he'd done, or failed to do. Gabriel Reyes, the man who'd died for him, who'd Jesse had begged with all his pathetic heart to stay with him, hadn't actually died. It felt like some sick technicality that brought him back, or some cosmic joke played on Jesse himself.

His eyes, adjusted to the darkness, stared around with that sort of uncomfortable awareness that the bed wasn't where he wanted to be. He felt restless, and yet there was a man holding him down, grounding him there.

Jack was wrapped around him like a snake, providing the weight to keep him there. They weren't naked, but instead, seemed to be wearing nightclothes. Undoubtedly, they were Jack's, and Jesse eyed the pattern of the PJ pants he was wearing.

Jack shifted, and McCree met his sleep-crusted gaze easily. "Morning." He managed, the sound of it flat to himself.

"You need to go running today." Jack told him off, voice gentle. "You're in a mood."

Jesse groused, and Jack pushed him slightly. "Come on. We should get going." He stood then, rubbing his forehead quietly. Without much heat, he complained about drinking and said something about  _never_  drinking again, which they both knew was a terrible outright lie.

Trooper roused with Jack, and Jesse was left alone in Jack's clothes and bed. He eventually forced himself to follow.

This morning, Jack wasn't in the apartment. He'd apparently gone to take Trooper out on a walk, as he was nowhere to be found. That was fine, as Jesse stripped out of his borrowed clothes. He debated on grabbing more clothes, but something held him back from borrowing Jack's running gear. That something that stopped him felt like remaining boundaries and his own need for space.

Quietly, Jesse put back on his clothes from last night, and dipped out of Jack's apartment. He could text him later that he had some things to get done back home. He felt like a coward, leaving, but…Jack was right about one thing.

He was in a real sour mood.

XXXXX

He ran longer and harder than he usually would, just trying to work the irritation and grief out of his system. He had to get his nose outta joint, he was just lost for words on how to actually deal with this. He took a cold shower when he got home, sore and still pissy. He drank his coffee, and he texted Jack over his toast.

'sorry for dippin. Youre right- I'm in a mood. Runnin didn't help but it was worth a shot'

"You worried me, Jesse.' Jack texted back quickly. 'I'm glad to hear from you though, I was about to head over to your apartment.'

Jesse looked around at the place- it was still messy and not fit at all for a wheelchair to make its way around the place. He grimaced. 'don't bother lol. We should get to Gabe. I'll have to clean up the joint later…don't think this is a good place for gabe 2 go.'

Jack took a bit longer to respond to that, before he answered. 'I can see your logic there. It's not exactly disability friendly, that place…I know you're his guardian, but my place is outfitted for.' Jack sent the first message, and the rest in another text. 'Well, disabled veterans.'

Jesse raised a brow as he stared down at his phone, before pocketing it, and finishing his meal quickly, needing to get going.

'I think your place works good, Jack. I just don't wanna pile stress on you bud. Don't feel obligated jus' cause my place sucks.'

'I want to help Gabriel too.' Jack reminded quietly. 'You don't have to do this alone.'

Jesse took a long moment to breathe and hear that out, but he nodded. 'thanks jack, im gonna head to the hospital. If you wanna come, I'd like the support.'

'I'll see you there, Jess.'

XXXXX

The hospital was a headache. Jesse showed up first and wasn't afraid to get started because he knew it was going to be a mess and a half long before he even got his hands on the paperwork.

He got into Gabe's room, and Gabriel was asleep. Jesse took the time to step forward and offer a soft kiss on his forehead, right where the scar was. He didn't dare speak any apology out loud, but that thing reminded him of… when he lost everything.

Gabriel didn't stir, and so Jesse rubbed the bumpy scarred tissue and whispered a soft good morning. He didn't really want to wake Gabriel, but he did want to be there when he woke. He stood up, and stepped back.

Jack wasn't here yet, and so Jesse could afford this moment to indulge in the past.

He rubbed that piece of metal on his left hand where there'd been a callus worn into his skin, at that base of ring finger where he'd lost that last physical reminder of them. Rubbed the metal that replaced the arm and everything that'd been on it, when it'd been cut off way back then, left a mangled stump in its place.

He took off his hat then, and set it down on a vinyl chair in the corner. He did the same with his serape, left standing there in his button up and his new rendition of the deadlock logo on his belt since Ashe didn't like his BAMF buckle much at all. And he stood there with his metal arm completely exposed, feeling every amount that he'd changed.

He sat down in the chair next to his things, watching Gabriel's chest move up and down quietly in sleep. It was almost unnatural to see him lying flat like this, too used to feeling Gabriel curled up against him, the small of his back left feeling the cold of the vinyl or how his neck felt unfortunately unfulfilled. Jesse supposed it was unnatural as the rest of the situation.

McCree stared at this man who had been his boss for years, and his romantic partner for a few years less, his fiancé for even less.

He clasped his hands together and bowed his head.

"I lost the ring Gabe." He murmured, trying to keep his voice low. "I kept wearing it, but maybe I shoulda been more careful." He choked. "Yours is in storage, it's in my apartment. But…mine prolly got blasted to smithereens. Just like my arm. Sorry about that bit too. Know you always told me to watch my 6. Suppose I shoulda watched it better." He went real quiet, looking at the scar on Gabe's left temple, from when he should have watched it better then too.

Jesse took a breath. "Wars over, and we're both still here. Doubt we're in any shape to get married, but…I hope you know it's really what I wanted. More than anything. So much so I still don't know what to do besides wake up like when I get home from my morning run you'll be showered, with coffee made, and you'll berate my inability to wake up when you do. Then I go to work and pretend that when you come home from your job- as the professor you always wanted to be, well, you'll have a table set and be grading papers and you'll remind me not to leave out my shit like I always do because one day tripping over it's gonna kill you."

He shifted again. "We're prolly too old for kids, but…well, you always did like dogs." His lips quirked up into a smile as he made that joke at his own expense, "Always had a thing for dragging strays home."

He went quiet again, as Gabriel shifted in the bed.

There was a knock at the door, and some nurse poked his head in, telling him they had a visitor. Jesse gave permission for him to come in, finally letting himself speak at full volume.

"Tell him to come on in." Jesse nodded. "And then, whenever his doctor has a minute, I think we're ready to discuss our options moving forward."

XXXXX

Gabriel slept through most of their negotiations and giving of instructions. It was a real bore, but Jesse wasn't as disorganized as depression made him appear. This was a mission, and Gabriel needed him to perform his best. With speed and precision that surprised the nurses and Jack himself, he filled out paperwork and started keeping track of the various appointments Gabriel needed.

On a spare piece of paper, he made a weekly calendar to keep track of all the details of who and where he'd need to speak to and go to. As talks finished and Jack seemed overwhelmed, Jesse drew a fast border around the edges and labeled the time stamps and days of the week. What had looked like a disorganized list now was clearly a very organized, detailed plan. He put it in Gabriel's file folder the doctor had given him at some point or another.

Jack's eyes were wide in shock, and Jesse let him take the folder, and watched him stare at the paper, bewildered by how that had come together.

Just when the doctor and Jack had started to worry that Jesse wasn't up for the task.

"Perfect." Jesse said, stretching as he stood. "Does that settle everything that we needed to do here, then?"

"It…does, actually." The woman seemed genuinely surprised. "I think that's everything."

Another nurse came in with a wheelchair, and Jesse thanked them both, finally looking to Gabriel. "Let's getcha outta here, boss." Jesse told him plainly, seeing that Gabriel was still asleep, he gave a soft chuckle. "Look at you, I know you always threatened to sleep through these kindsa things, but I can't believe you get to live the dream now."

They waited for the nurse to disconnect the equipment that was no longer needed, and they all left.

"Alright then, Jack. Let's get this show on the road then. I'm gonna be late to work if we wait much longer."

"Oh, goodness, you didn't take the day off?" Jack murmured, worried for him, seeming equally as ready to be out of the hospital regardless.

"Nah," Jesse stood, approaching the bed. "I have orders that gotta go out today. Plus, I think with the holidays finishing up going into the New Year, it's as good a time as any to see how Gabe will do in the shop. It won't be too crowded, and that means if it is too much, we have time to get him moved elsewhere."

He was gentle, but professional, firm, picking Gabriel up out of his bed. That seemed to work, as brown eyes finally opened, blinking into awareness as Jesse and Jack worked together to settle him in the wheelchair.

"Morning, Gabe." Jesse said as he knelt at the side of the wheelchair. "You ready to be outta here?" He asked, before wrapping his serape around him. Jack huffed, and placed a blanket over Gabe's lap that they worked together to wrap under his legs as well.

"I know I am." Jack admitted, placing Gabe's folder into the pocket behind the wheelchair's back.

Jesse hummed in agreement, placing his hat on Gabe's head, giving his scar cover from curious strangers.

"That just looks wrong, Jesse." Jack told him flatly, hardly able to look at Jesse's own terrible hat hair. "He needs a beanie or something. That's more in line with his aesthetic."

"Do I look like I own a beanie?" Jesse corrected, crossing his arms with a raise of his eyebrows.

"No, but I think you'd look good in one." Jack teased, flirting with a subtle smile.

Jesse put a hand over his heart, making an expression of false agony. "Oh no, flattery, my one true weakness!" He shouted in false pain. "What ever am I to do?"

As Jesse got in place to push Gabe, Jack leaned in for a soft kiss, and they both relaxed as they gained comfort in the light that…even though Gabe was back in the picture, they weren't gonna just give up on whatever was budding between them.

XXXXX

In spite of the huff and puff, McCree  _still_  somehow managed to get there before Ashe that morning. Jack kissed him again as he did have things to do- what things, Jesse had no idea- but that left him and Gabriel in Oddities and Ends.

Gabriel yawned, and Jesse snorted as he pushed him all the way inside. He put a hand on Gabriel's, feeling the silence overwhelm him for a second, before he found words.

"Welcome to my store, Gabe. Jack's got stuff to do, and I have work…but I figured you wouldn't like being placed in like…a home for the elderly."

Brown eyes focused on him. "I wouldn, y'right." Gabriel slurred, and Jesse about jumped 10 feet in the air. His eyes widened, and he stayed put, but his entire body was on edge.

That was- Gabriel was…

He ran a hand through his hair, and swallowed, putting his other hand on Gabe's lap to balance himself. "You can talk?" McCree asked, surprised.

Gabriel blinked, before he nodded, seeming frustrated by something before he opened his mouth again. "S' jus' hard." He managed, before puffing out air, stretching his back. "'ve gotten better." He murmured, and Jesse nodded dumbly.

"Yeah, you have." He said, stroking Gabriel's leg with his thumb. "This…actually makes things much easier." He rubbed his neck again, before taking a deep breath. "Do you know who I am, Gabe?"

"You're Jesse." He said simply, and Jesse felt something constrict in his chest at hearing his name from Gabe's lips.

"Do you  _know_  who I am, though?" He pressed for details, trying to keep his voice even and not quite being successful. Gabriel shrugged.

"You're...Familiar." He managed, lifting his hand and giving a half-hearted gesture to match his so-so knowledge. "Think…y'must be important. If you took me out." He gestures around them, seeming to grow more confident in using his arm. "But…not really."

Jesse kept the disappointment that crashed in him out of his eyes and tone, hopefully. "Ah. That's alright, Gabe. I'll fill you in as we need. I  _was_  your second…er," He paused, as that made Gabriel's brow cinch up in confusion. "I guess I'll explain it simpler." He mumbled, before restarting. "We worked together. I was the one you trusted most." He pat Gabriel's leg.

"Why weren't you there before?" Gabriel asked, and Jesse's expression darkened.

He didn't know how to answer, and so he just…sighed. "I was told you were gone for good." He settled on. "I was there when you were…shot, you know." Jesse stood, patting his shoulder. "They told me you weren't gonna wake back up. But here you are."

"Why'd you leave?" Gabriel seemed… less hurt than before, but still, he didn't take that news well; but to be fair, Jesse couldn't imagine that anyone would.

Jesse's heart clenched in his chest, and the sensation was painful, to hear Gabriel's strengthening voice ask the question he always heard Gabe ask in his nightmares.

"That's…complicated." Jesse admitted, voice soft. "But in essence, I was…afraid something would happen to me if I stayed." He settled on that, and while Gabriel's brow remained wrinkled in the middle, he didn't ask more questions. "I'm here now, Gabe. Do you want to stay in the wheelchair, or sit down somewhere, or would you rather me give you a tour of the joint?"

"Where's the bathroom?" Gabe asked, blinking around, and McCree laughed lowly, deciding to show Gabe the place in total. He did make a stop at the bathroom for Gabe, and while Gabriel smoked inside to take care of business, Jesse texted Angela rapidly.

'hes using complete sentences angie. Hes talking fine. wtf like m not mad but uh I made 10 different appointments bc I was told he wasn't able to.'

'Good morning to you too, Jesse.' Angela cracked dryly when she first got the first message, before she quickly devolved into the same panicked excitement. 'Wait- Talking? I'm coming over."

Gabriel reappeared in his wheelchair, and lifted his blanket up for McCree expectantly, brown eyes wide. McCree took the hint, and rearranged it for him to be a little more comfortable. He patted Gabriel's shoulders, before bringing him back to the main area. "Alright, I have…well, work to do. And you look pretty spent, bud." Jesse told him quietly.

As though queued, Gabriel yawned. "…I spend a lot of nights awake…" He told Jesse, seemingly pleased with interaction. "This place is nice- strange, but…nice." He curled up in the wheelchair, and Jesse moved things around in his corner to create space.

"Alright, lets not sleep upright, you'll get a killer crick in your neck." Jesse chastised lightly, tugging on Gabriel's hand. With a groan, Gabriel stumbled to his feet. He stumbled and began to flop, unused to motions like this, and Jesse had to use his other hand- his left- to stabilize him.

Gabriel tensed at the metal, but Jesse was able to move him to the sofa with few other issues. Jesse rearranged the blanket over him, along with some pillows. Before Jesse left him to rest, Gabriel grabbed his hand- that robotic limb- and looked it over. His thumbs rubbed against the cool metal, as his brow crinkled worriedly.

Jesse let him, as he didn't know how to tell him no. However, Gabriel eventually, reluctantly let him go, and Jesse wrapped his serape around himself once more. He draped it over his prosthetic to hide it like he usually did, and took his hat back now that Gabriel was tucked lovingly out of sight.

"I'm not going back to the doctors?" Gabriel asked quietly, as Jesse stood and started walking towards the door to unlock it.

Jesse looked back at him, and his gaze softened as he paused, still within Gabe's line of sight. "For appointments, and stuff yeah…but you won't stay there again. You're gonna live with me and Jack now."

Gabriel's brow furrowed at that, but he just went quiet and closed his eyes.

Jesse took another minute to text Jack, to warn him that Gabe could talk, but he'd not felt chatty until that point. Jack left him on read, but he had said that he was busy with something.

Angela pushed open the door as soon as Jesse turned his back to it.

"That was fast." He commented, before she waved a hand.

"I was already on my way. I left my car here- Ana took me home, remember?" Angela told him distractedly, seeing the wheelchair but no Gabriel. "Where is he?" She asked, looking around confusedly.

Jesse gestured her over, stowing the wheelchair close to Gabriel.

"We have a visitor, Gabe." Jesse told him, fingers just shy of stroking his cheek. "Think you can show her too?" Gabriel's eyes opened again, and he made a soft noise of distaste. Jesse chuckled. "Apparently you're not a morning person now either." He teased.

Gabriel used him to force himself upright, before looking to Angela. As though  _caught_ , Gabriel attempted to lie back down and look away, trying to appear disinterested. Jesse laughed out of the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

"Gabe, c'mon. It's just Angie." He cajoled, lifting him up and placing him on his lap, wrapping his arms around him. "She's our friend."

The man made an expression of disbelief that stunned Angela, but he finally decided to open his mouth and grace them. "Hi," He groused, frowning at her.

Jesse nudged him quietly. "What's got you mad about her?" He asked, one eyebrow lifted in curiosity as he turned Gabe towards him.

Gabriel's mouth twisted into a bit of a frown, as he debated the words to use. "Moira doesn't like her." He managed, and that made Jesse's eyes bulge and Angela's face stretch into a false smile tellingly in distaste.

"Moira?" Jesse pressed further. "As in, redhead, Irish, tall?"

When Gabriel nodded, Jesse closed his eyes, and breathed for a long moment.

"When did you last see her, Gabriel?" Angela asked, trying to keep her expression neutral. Gabriel leered at her before he finally allowed it.

"Last night. She always comes at night." He murmured, leaning back on Jesse. Jesse rubbed his shoulders and Gabriel made a pleased sound at the affection being laid on him.

"Has she hurt you?" Jesse asked, again fighting his innermost urges to keep his tone neutral, even though Angela and his eyes had locked with the urge to fight one specific person.

"No." Gabriel disagreed. "She helps. Taught me how to move again. Talks to me a lot."

"Does she still test on you?" Angela asked, and Gabriel shrugged.

"Everyone in that place did." Gabriel explained logically, and Jesse saw Angela shrivel up inside her, since it would be hard to explain to Gabriel why her tests weren't okay.

"How long have you been able to talk?" Jesse cut to the chase.

Gabriel paused, thinking. "A while now. Time's hard to track. So many visits I can't remember which one was first."

Angela looked exceptionally peeved, and Gabriel huffed, turning into Jesse further. "Doesn't look friendly." Gabriel muttered to Jesse, and Jesse hugged him tight, feeling tender that Gabriel turned to him like this already.

"She's just mad at Moira, Gabriel." He reasoned with the man, the motions his hand was making kept just shy of petting or rubbing soft circles into his back. "You've made a lot more progress than doctors thought. And it sounds like it's because Moira's kept you up at night, and therefore you've slept through the day and any checkups there."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Gabriel rationalized, and Jesse had to pause, and calm himself down. Gabriel was just going to misinterpret their anger if they weren't careful, and Jesse still had a mission.

"It  _is_  good that you're better than we thought." Jesse agreed, feeling Gabriel relax against him, a wet noodle in Jesse's hug.

Jesse eventually settled on getting Gabriel back into his place on the couch, when something hit him. "Hey, wait. If you're okay with me, what was all the fuss last night about?" Jesse asked, hands going to his hips, as Gabriel seemed to pout at losing contact with Jesse.

"You startled me." Gabriel admitted. "Didn't recognize you and you were touchy. Takes a bit after waking up to understand and talk."

Jesse nodded, sighing. "I'll keep that in mind, Gabe. Alright, Angela, I'm sure any minute now Ashe'll show up and yell at me for not getting any of my duties done." He lamented, patting her back. "Never mind that they're also hers."

Gabriel followed him around with his gaze, and his brow furrowed, hands clenching together. "When I understood, he knew stuff. Stuff about me." Gabriel said to Angela, and Angela softened. Jesse was putting on his usual bravado, and he and Bars had to clean up the joint completely from the night before.

"He does know stuff about you." Angela agreed with Gabriel.

"I feel bad about lashing out." Gabriel told her, brow creasing and gaze falling, a frown etching into his skin. "Who was he?"

Angela didn't have the ability to answer that, as she knew answering it honestly wouldn't bring Gabriel any peace. She helped rearrange his pillows, and patted his arm to tell him it would be okay. "Who he was means he doesn't mind that you lashed out." She settled on. "Who he is  _now_  is up to you."

Jesse picked up the gift Jack had left forgotten on the bar of their café, and pocketed it. He felt some kinda way about that, but…it would be all right. It could be opened later- wasn't like Jack knew that was Jesse's gift he'd left behind.

"Alright, I'm off then. See you around, Jesse." Angela waved as she left, and Ashe came in from the door Angela held open.

"Why was she here so early?" Ashe asked, suspicious, as she and B.O.B. came in, Ashe's Starbucks order still warm and apparently still mostly full.

Bars gave the jig up in a heartbeat, and pointed towards McCree's area, where plenty had been moved around. Ashe went pink, and prepared to assume the worst- both of her business partner and the woman who had shamelessly flirted with her all night. B.O.B., though, always the more rational and calm of the pair, found Gabriel quickly. He nudged Ashe mid build up, and pointed to the wheelchair.

She went quiet, walking towards it, feeling the handles meant for pushing, before her eyes zoomed in on Gabriel Reyes looking at her.

" _You_ ," She growled with her eyes narrowing, but instead of taking it out on the man lying docile on her couch, she rounded back on McCree. "Why on earth is the man that put me and the rest of Deadlock in prison lying on my fucking chaise lounge,  _McCree!_?"

"It's a fucking sofa you pretentious bitch! Where else was he gonna go, Jack's busy and he's my charge!"

"I don't very well know, but it ain't gonna be on my lounge!"

"It's A FOOTREST!" McCree howled, the two of them already back in the heat of one of their famed arguments. B.O.B. patted Gabriel reassuringly. Whenever this happened, they would go for maybe an hour max, including the time for a brief fistfight. And then they'd make up by patching each other up. Ashe wouldn't actually make Gabriel leave his position, not if she'd immediately taken up her complaint with Jesse himself.

In the meanwhile, B.O.B. placed a cowboy hat on Gabriel, and offered him a bottle of water and a straw. He pointed to the bar, and patted Gabriel again, trying to convey that was where he'd be if he actually needed something.

Gabriel adjusted the hat to cover his eyes, and tuned out the argument with a surprising amount of ease that…almost reminded him of better days.

XXXXX

"Genji, I'll have you know there's no fucking way that you're faster than a bullet."

"I beg to differ, McCree. Now shoot me already so we can end this stupid argument."

"No! You're gonna get yourself hurt you dumbass." Jesse's voice was sharp and lively, and Gabriel felt his lips in a smile as the scene presented itself to him through the fog.

Jesse was dressed in all black- his hat included. He was rather handsome, but whatever he had done with his hair just wasn't working. There was another man- it sort of looked like an omnic, but the flesh gave him away as something else. Jesse looked to him, pleading.

"C'mon boss, you gotta tell him to knock it off."

"Agent McCree, I can't believe you'd doubt another agent of mine so easily." Gabriel teased, and Genji looked smug behind his mask, red eyes goading McCree into acting.

McCree looked to Genji and stuck his tongue out. He then leaned into Gabriel, and his scruff rubbed against Gabe's cheek and he felt Jesse's hot breath against his ear, sending shivers down his spine and into his cock as Jesse gave him a sultry warning.

"I'll sleep in  _my_  quarters tonight if he gets hurt, Gabe, don't doubt me."

Gabriel held a hand over his heart. "…Agent Shimada, I'm  _terribly_  sorry, but due to an act of… _unforgivable_  insubordination," Gabriel heaved Jesse over his shoulder, making him burst out laughing. "I have to expressly forbid any such challenges. And I have to excuse myself and Agent McCree to reprimand him. Severely."

Genji rolled his eyes at them. "Sure, Commander. 'Reprimand' him as you need." He sarcastically waved a hand, seeming rather put out by the whole thing, his red eyes seemingly to dim as they squinted in frustration with the lack of meaningful output for his energy.

He carried McCree out of the training facility in a fireman's hold, and it wasn't until they got to the elevator of their Rome bunker that Jesse and him scuffled properly.

Jesse had him pinned against the metal wall, and there was such a tender smile on his face that Gabriel's heart felt like it was going to burst, and his cock was hard against Jesse's leg. "Still think I need to be reprimanded for insubordination? Your cock seems to think otherwise." Jesse teased, and Gabriel leaned forward to bring their lips together.

"You're insatiable, brat." Gabriel hummed, as Jesse brought their bodies together, in a secret embrace.

"You love it." Jesse reminded him, before he brought them into another kiss.

Gabriel broke away after a long moment, and his fingers cupped Jesse's face, thumb running over his lips thoughtfully.

"More than that. I love  _you_ , Jesse."

Jesse's left hand was then intertwined with Gabriel's right, and he only broke the tight hold for his thumb to find the ringer that was warmed by Jesse's skin.

"I love you too, Gabe. You know that." Jesse told him reassuringly. The elevator pinged open, and Gabriel looked to see who it was that interrupted this when his eyes blinked open.

It was midafternoon, and the large omnic had poked him awake. He was holding a tray of food, and Gabriel sat up with some effort. He was thirsty, and he  _was_  hungry.

McCree was busy away from him, the man talking on the phone. It was nestled in the crook of his neck as he spoke casually, the words a mystery to start with. His back was to Gabriel, who found him absolutely entrancing to watch. He was plucking flowers delicately from their slots in a wall, and creating something just out of reach.

The contents of the dream were fading away, but Gabriel's heart clenched all the same as he saw a ring-less metal arm took the phone as the conversation ended. "I'll see you tonight Jack. No, I won't ditch the cowboy gear! I told you, it's not a get up!" He laughed, and Gabriel's eyes were wide as he watched the scene unfold. "C'mon. You love it." He teased in that exact same tone of voice, and Gabriel felt his heart break in his chest.

Moira was right about one thing.

A lot of things  _had_  changed. And it wasn't just Gabriel who was different now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yell at me on twitter or on here and thank u for reading
> 
> this will continue bc they're not happy yet.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that took a hot minute! Works been busy, and I've really only had the opportunity to write on weekends. Hopefully this chapter makes it worth the wait!
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone reading this, both my friends and people who picked this up to enjoy the story. I have adored reading your comments, and no worry, I have every intention of going forward with this work. :)
> 
> Next chapter might take about the same amount of time, but I have a good idea of where I'm starting it, obviously, and I have ideas of what else I'd like to include already. But, well, for now: Enjoy!!!

It had been a month since Gabriel had reentered their lives.

Things were…different than he'd imagined them being, when such a thing happened. But looking at the situation, and looking at his expectations and dreams, he could now say he was foolish to have expected otherwise.

Jack sat in the middle of his afternoon lecture at his college. The professor had them watching a movie, one that he'd already been given a copy of to watch at his leisure. There were two reasons  _why_  he was exempt from paying attention, and why he was able to space out and think about how he'd gotten to this point in his life.

The first of which was the delicate content- this was a class discussing the many different aspects of the Omnic Crisis. They'd finished the first unit, which was a very broad unit on overview Omnic Crisis. Now, as they were preparing for a test at the end of the week, their professor had thought it'd be helpful to see footage and more detailed recounts in media form.

However, the man teaching the course had asked Jack still attend class that day.

He didn't mind having to stick around even though he wouldn't be able to watch the movie with the class; it was nice to be apart of things. Plus, the professor enjoyed having Jack around afterwards for the younger students to be able to ask questions.

The other reason he was exempt was the reason Jack had to be tapped on the hand gently when the film was finally finished.

He looked up, and the professor smiled down at him, signing that the movie was finished.

'Are you still ok with being asked questions?" The man signed, and Jack thought on that. Was he?

Really, he had been here this long, and the film seemed innocent from what little he'd seen of it. Jack nodded. 'I'll tell you if I can't answer.' He responded, before sitting up. Jack put his hearing aid back in, and reentered the conversation once more.

XXXXX

After class was said and done, and the last of the other students were ushered out of class, the professor smiled at Jack, signing to him to say he'd done well.

Jack removed the hearing aid, having to rub at where it was starting to get exceptionally sore against the skin.

'Thanks for that, Jack.' The man sat across from him, giving Jack a soft look before he put his hands back up to continue talking. 'The students enjoyed that.'

'I did too.' Jack shrugged. 'I was surprised with how polite they were.'

'You  _are_  sort of a hero.' The man slyly reminded, pointing at the poster on the holographic display- to that overly flattering image of him and Gabriel, back to back, featured in propaganda.

Jack sighed, rolling his eyes as he flipped the photos album, not wanting to see how they'd looked back then any more, before looking to his friend. 'You're too kind to me, professor.'

'Jack, I thought I told you to call me Syd.' He chastised. 'You were one of the best men at my wedding; you have long past earned the right to call me by my first name. Hell, you could even call me it during class hours.'

The photos stopped on a more personal image in the album that Jack and Syd had put together, and they both looked sad at the forgotten photo. Jack's face smiled at the camera, as did another dark haired man.

Syd rubbed his ring finger tiredly. 'You know, today is the 7 year anniversary of his death.' He told Jack. 'Do you miss him?'

'Of course I do, Syd.' Jack looked to Vincent's youthful face and felt his stomach stir. 'You're seeing someone now, aren't you?'

'Just sometimes. It's not serious.' Syd waved a hand. 'I keep myself too busy to think about him. But that means I don't have time to see anyone regardless. I heard that you have someone at home now.'

Jack gave a soft smile, rubbing his neck. 'I do- his name's Jesse. He's another vet. He works at an oddity store around here.'

'Oh?' Syd looked intrigued. 'I've heard more though, from the VA office about someone else.' He looked down, and fingered through the photos, before tapping on Gabriel's face.

Jack looked at it, and he looked a bit…bittersweet.

'Yeah.' Jack admitted. 'There are some administrative issues that needed to be resolved- its got me going back and forth from the office these days. There are a ton of issues because his medical bills are enormous. But…well, we're looking to his back pay, compensation he's owed from the class action lawsuit against the United States Armed Forces following the SEP… Plus, we're deciding how to inform his next of kin, considering that his guardian is actually…Jesse.'

Syd made a face, seeming just as uncertain about that as Jack was. 'Did he have kids?' When Jack just nodded, Syd raised his hands, because that was just an extremely messy layer to add to the already complicated situation.

'They've thought their father was dead for 6 years.' Jack explained. 'I was the one to tell them. It won't look good if I tell them he wasn't actually all that dead.'

Syd made a sympathetic face.

'Good luck.'

Jack nodded, getting up. 'Well, I've left Ana babysitting long enough. You know how to find me.'

Syd nodded, handing Jack back his thumb drive off his computer. 'Take care, Jack. I'm here to help too.'

Jack quickly dipped from the emptied classroom, pocketing the thumb drive and his hearing aid. He needed some of his own space to think all this over once again before he had to head home. Thankfully, he had a bus ride before he'd get home.

His silent footsteps followed him as he descended the stairs, and traversed the emptier part of campus as the sun fell below the horizon, and January's wind pressed its way into his conflicted heart.

Gabriel was quite the complicated subject, and Jack had a myriad of…mixed feelings. That man had been his best friend, but he was also a man that Jack had had none too subtle feelings for, back when.

At the time, though, Gabriel had been married to someone else, a lovely woman that lived out in California near her and Gabe's daughters' home, helping raise the grandchild with the girls husband. Jack knew about them because they still sent him Christmas cards, even long after Gabriel had broken off, even after Gabriel's death.

Instead, for a time, Jack had Vincent. They'd broken up over mutual terms- Jack had been determined to see the crisis to its end, and Vincent did his piece and wanted out. He'd gotten married to a flight enthusiast and things had been fine. Syd and Vincent's wedding was right before Gabriel's split into that shadow organization, when it'd become clear that factions of the beleaguered omnic forces were being restocked and resupplied and reinforced through human factions, profiteering off the mess.

In that moment, he had loved Gabriel, and Vincent had known it. He had loved his straight best friend, and Vincent told him that he was worth loving, and would find someone who would.

And here he was, almost 20 years after the fact. He had a relationship with someone who did, in fact care. Who had similar faults to Jack, even, pressing forward even when everyone else was gone and they were only fighting ghosts.

The cars headlights shone over Jack as it crested the hill of his university, and Jack looked to see if it was the bus, and was only disappointed for a moment, before he sat down on a bench to wait.

20 years after he knew he'd loved Gabriel, he was finally beginning to grasp how little Gabriel had loved him back. How many secrets had been kept, over the years, and how much that organization had both changed Gabriel, and yet, embodied him.

There was the flickering of jealousy, because even though Jesse had yet to confirm anything…it was becoming clearer and clearer that Gabriel wasn't as straight as Jack had believed when they'd met or been close for all those years.

And it wasn't Jack he had discovered that through.

He would never begrudge the dead, but as the bus's headlights finally shone over him, he felt the hole left in him when Vincent had told him he wasn't the  _one_  echo stronger than ever inside him.

It had been a month since Gabriel had reentered their lives.

Jack was becoming increasingly afraid that would happen again.

Jack was becoming increasingly afraid he would never be the one.

XXXXX

"Thanks again for doing this on short notice, Ana." Jack said thankfully, murmuring as he walked through his kitchen, Trooper trailing behind him. Ana was busy throwing out her and Gabe's takeout from that night as Jack filled up his faithful dog's bowl with his wet food, setting it down for him and offering him several loving scratches to his side.

"Of course, Jack. I don't mind it, and it's nice to get the chance to hang out with an old friend." Ana murmured, putting a hand on his as the man stood. "By the way, Jesse called earlier. He wanted me to tell you that he's coming over at…." She glanced at the clock, before sighing. "Well, he'll be here any minute now."

"No worries." Jack murmured, rubbing his neck. "How was Gabe? Hopefully he behaved."

"Gabriel is an  _angel_ , Jack." Ana murmured affectionately, before leaning in and nudging him conspiratorially, her amber eyes glowing with amusement. "We both know the only reason he gets feisty with you is because he's jealous of your relationship with Jesse."

"Don't say that." Jack whispered, guilt surging in him as Trooper trotted over, in search of food, before heading back to the kitchen table. "It's Jesse and Gabriel's thing to work out, and Jesse has yet to tell me about the true… _nature_  of their past relationship." He waved her off, before going over to where Gabriel was sitting at his chair, finishing off his dessert from where Ana had, undoubtedly, caved into his pouting. Trooper was begging on the floor, but Jack wasn't going to tell him off any.

"Well, Gabriel was feeling chatty with me," Ana admitted, putting her hands on Gabriel's shoulders appreciatively. Gabriel looked up at the gesture inquisitively, staring at Ana quietly, clearly not fully listening. "He told me what he recalls. From what it sounds like, he and Jesse apparently had  _quite_  the cute romance."

Jack went flush, and Gabriel stared at him intently with those deep brown eyes, paying attention now- he'd need a minute to focus. "Ana," He told her off half-heartedly, before he glanced at her furtively, and gave into that urge to want to know more. "… A romance, huh?" He murmured, aware that Gabriel was trying to listen into their conversation now. "I thought Gabe was straight."

"If I recall, so did Gabriel." Ana chuckled, "Time apparently changed things for him. On the whole, the only thing I'm not all that surprised about is that he and his wife broke things off; with the war dragging on the way it did meant that…there wasn't a chance to ever see our partners. It was the same for Sam and I…"

Jack nodded, rubbing his arm. "Still, you and he managed to have families." He reminded, that remaining a sore spot in spite of how he was happy that Vincent had managed to have a life outside of the war, without Jack. "How is Fareeha doing?"

"She's left the Egyptian army…but has taken up a spot in Helix Security." Ana said, almost exasperatedly. "I fought for almost 30 years to bring about peace, and my daughter is determined not to make the most of it."

Jack chuckled lightly. "Well, Fareeha  _does_  take after someone particularly protective that I know rather well." He teased, prodding Ana while he cleared Gabriel's dishes, the man having finished his dessert.

Ana gave him a warning look, raising a finely manicured eyebrow, drawing a challenge line in the sand for Jack about how far he wanted to push Ana Amari.

"Who's Fareeha?" Gabe finally managed to enter the conversation, and Ana and Jack both looked to him with a bit of surprise.

Ana softened, ignoring any qualms with Jack for the moment, "She's my daughter, and your niece," She explained, patting his back. "Unfortunately, she's not come to see you yet because she's busy with work in Egypt. I heard she's going to get placed over in Colorado soon. She was already planning a visit to her father, perhaps I could convince her to come here as well."

Gabriel seemed interested, before he turned to Jack.

"Is Jesse home yet?" He asked, and Jack's smile only slightly faltered.

"Not yet." He shook his head, giving an apologetic smile, brow creasing together softly. "He had some business to take care of with Ashe at their store."

Gabriel's face fell, and he leaned back in his chair. "Why am I here, then?" He asked, voice just shy of whiny. "B.O.B. likes me around just fine."

"It's not fair to you to keep you in a store while Jesse is working, Gabriel," Ana explained. "And, I had to take you to therapy this afternoon, remember?"

Gabriel shifted, crossing his arms and hanging his head slightly. "I know. But I'm better, aren't I? I want to be with Jesse."

Ana and Jack resisted the urge to sigh, and Ana patted Gabriel's back reassuringly. "You are better, Gabriel. But recovery is a process, and there's more we can do for you to get you even better."

Gabriel shifted unhappily, looking to Jack, brow furrowing in his unspoken jealousy. "Aren't I good enough now?" He asked, and Jack's throat felt a little tight at the question. He knew that feeling well, wondering when he'd finally be good enough to be done. Recovery was a process, but it was tiring.

He sat down with Gabriel, and did something he'd yet to do in front of him. Quietly, he took out his hearing aid.

Gabriel didn't respond at first, but Jack let him come touch it, feel it.

He let Gabriel investigate it until he was content, and then he put it back in.

"It  _is_  hard, Gabe." Jack told him, putting his hands on Gabriel's. "I know it is." He squeezed his hands quietly in support. "You are good enough, Gabe, and you can do this. It's not that you're not good enough. Therapy is about improving your quality of life, just like everything we're doing with you is. And it sucks. I won't lie. Ana knows some sign language but it's her, what, forth, fifth language?" He looked to her quietly for confirmation.

Ana gave a shrug. "Sixth and a half, but who's keeping count?" She joked quietly.

"And so I got the hearing aid to…well, improve my quality of life. Everything I've done has been to make sure I feel better. So I can do what I want to do." He gave him a gentle look. "Therapy has helped you speak and be able to focus faster- you like being able to be in conversations faster, don't you?"

Gabriel made another face at having his argument already smashed to pieces in front of him. "I do." He agreed begrudgingly, lips moving in distaste. "I like what I get out of it. I'm just…it's a lot." He admitted. "I went from sleeping almost all the time to doing all kindsa stuff. And it's nice. I like having Jesse around, I enjoy having you as friends…but…. Ugh." He gestured helplessly. "It's a lot. I'd like it to not be a lot."

"We'd like very much for it to not be a lot as well, Gabriel." Ana sympathized, brow creased as her hand gently placed itself upon Gabriel and Jack's. "I understand you're doing a lot. It'll get easier with time. You've only been back for a month and we've all had to keep moving you around instead of giving you the time to settle."

Gabriel nodded, face looking crestfallen as they got to the bottom of his issues with what was happening around him.

"I can't keep up." He admitted. "I just…I like being with Jesse, but we always seem to come back here or to Jesse's store or the hospital. People are always moving around and I have to move with them. I just sort of wished things would. Stop, for a bit. Let me adjust… to anything that's going on."

Ana stroked his back understandingly. "I know it's tough, Gabriel." She murmured, and both of them felt his form shudder beneath their touch. "It'll get easier soon. We promise. Jesse's working out a break at the store with Ashe, in order to devote more time to you, at least during this stage."

Jack nodded when the man looked to him for support, and Gabriel sighed, slouching against the table, picking up Trooper from the floor. The one thing Gabriel consistently liked about Jack's apartment was his dog, and the dog was rather taken with Gabriel too.

Ana sighed as she looked to the clock, pulling out her phone. "I should get going, but I'll call Jesse to ask where he is." Ana told them but, but unnecessarily as Trooper perked up in Gabriel's lap, drawing their attention to the sound of keys working at the door.

"Well, speak of the devil." Ana humorously added, putting her phone away before crossing her arms. "Someone's late."

"Hey now." Jesse laughed weakly. "I ain't got a car and had to stop for Jack and I's dinner." He grinned, holding up takeout from Jack's favorite restaurant, unconsciously winning a smile from Jack. It was…very simple- but also incredibly sweet. Exactly what Jack wanted to finish off the day with.

Jesse brushed through the apartment, offering Ana a double kiss to the cheek thoughtlessly, and giving Jack a full kiss on the lips. "Sorry for the trouble, Ana, I'll be seeing you tomorrow, then- this was a big help." Jesse waved as Ana finally was able to see herself out of the apartment.

"See you later, Ana." Gabriel said right as she headed out, looking up from where he'd grown distracted by Trooper on his lap. Trooper seemed all too pleased with the situation, the dog's tail beating lazily against Gabriel's PJ bottoms. "What are you two doing tomorrow?" He asked, looking to Jesse expectantly.

Jesse broke away from his embrace with Jack, and he made his way over to Gabriel, kissing his cheeks the way he'd grown accustomed to getting from Jesse. He'd spotted Ana greeting Jesse and had promptly asked questions about it, and had gotten what he wanted easily.

"Well." Jesse rubbed his neck awkwardly, sitting down there and opening up his box, having to remove lids off sauces and figure out what it was he wanted to eat first- the side of a particularly tasty mango based salsa and chips or the entrée. "I'm moving out of my apartment, and Ana's chipping in. It's gonna be in one of the flats above the store, and she's helping me schlep my shit out, and working with me to trick the place out for you."

Gabriel's thinking expression was what Jack saw when he turned with his unpacked takeout box, the man biting his lower lip and furrowing his brow, before he raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. "You have an apartment, Jesse?" He asked, surprised.

Jack snorted, and Jesse hung his head guiltily, patting Gabriel's arm apologetically, chewing and swallowing what he was eating before looking at Gabriel earnestly.

"I do, but it's not…disability friendly in the slightest."

"It's not  _living_  friendly in the slightest." Jack corrected, amused as he padded over, quiet. "It's an  _extremely_  cluttered place, and it'd be difficult to move your wheelchair in there at all. Not to mention, it's on the third floor, and there's no elevator." He sat with Gabriel at the table, before realizing something. He turned to Jesse. "Come to think of it, how'd they get away with that? You'd think ADA advocates in the area would have serious issues with them."

"Oh, they do." Jesse hummed, patting Gabriel one final time before turning his attention back to his own takeout box. "I don't know how the landlord does it, but he weasels out of it at every opportunity. I'm just lucky that the appliances work as well as they do, even  _with_  frequently cold showers." He joked, shrugging. "But yeah, Gabe. I have an apartment. However, I'll be moving house anyway. When that's all settled, you'll finally be brought in so that we can stop taking advantage of Jack's gracious hospitality."

"Jesse, we're dating." Jack teased; shaking his head in disagreement, licking his lips at what he felt was undeserved praise. "Gabe's my friend too. It's not like I've minded the company. And I've  _certainly_  not minded having  _you_  around." Jesse sat down across from Jack, sitting on Gabriel's other side.

Gabriel was looking down at Trooper, rubbing the dog's fur to gain some reassurance. He always dampened at the reminder, and Jesse put a hand on Gabriel's shoulder, wanting to cheer him up.

"That, we are." Jesse agreed as he smiled at Jack, the expression something incredibly tender. "Regardless, the place I'm moving to is right above the store. It'll make a lotta stuff a bunch easier. But Ana and I have to clear house at my old place first, and that's no easy task."

Jack hummed noncommittally, and Gabriel set Trooper on the floor, the dog returning to Jack's side eagerly. Jack snuck him a single cooling fry from his takeout box, and stroked the dog's fur to ground himself. Gabriel was looking pretty worn out, and neither Jack nor Jesse could blame the way he just seemingly ran out of steam.

"I'm full, Jackie, I'll see you in the bedroom." Jesse told him as he brushed off the crumbs on his front, and moved to pull Gabriel's chair out from underneath the table.

Jesse's hands were gentle on Gabriel's body, helping him to his feet. Gabriel still needed therapy to be able to walk appropriately again, but he seemed to relish in how Jesse's hands were all over him. Jack tried his best to extinguish his growing discontent; but his eyes zoomed in towards all those soft, shared touches, and his heart ached in that hole, and something threatened to fill that empty space.

Jesse vanished to the guestroom, murmuring to Gabriel as he explained that it was way past bedtime, and Jesse would talk to him more in the morning.

Now, being honest, Jack was afraid of what the next month would bring, now that Jesse would be able to live in his new apartment with him, and now that Jack was no longer needed.

He stood up as well, feeling full, and deciding to clean up before he and Jesse headed to bed as well. He put Trooper back down on the floor,

He wandered towards the kitchen sink and washed off his and Jesse's utensils, putting away their remaining leftovers, making sure Trooper had a full water bowl before he silently walked towards his and Jesse's room, the one that he would soon be alone in again.

Jesse came in moments later, stripping with ease. "Hey, wow, my eyes." Jesse said, covering them as he approached the bed with a grin. Jack felt laughter starting to bubble in his chest.

"Jesse," He chastised mildly, eyes crinkling at the sides of his face.

Jesse's strong arms wrapped around him in an embrace as Jack felt giggles start to get out of control, and his chin tucked itself just above Jack's shoulder, while his lips got to Jack's ears, and whispered. "Wow, there we go. Lookin' at the sun is always such a hard task." He murmured, Jack's sides starting to hurt from his quiet laughter and shaking shoulders, but unable to help it as he snorted, and Jesse kissed his jawline, before moving into kiss his lips.

Jack broke the kiss after a few seconds of just…enjoying it. Jesse's eyes, rich and deep, watched him closely. Jesse's hands rubbed against his skin, and Jack felt reassured for the moment, and was emboldened to say what had been on his mind.

"You know, Jesse, you don't have to leave." Jack murmured, settling back into the hug. "You and Gabe could just…move in. Why move into a new place when you guys can just…be here. With me."

Jesse squeezed Jack back, obviously feeling at that vulnerability laying just beneath the surface, or hearing it in Jack's voice.

"I mean…I want to. I really, really do." Jesse murmured, leaning his head against Jack's, enjoying the closeness. "I just think it might be smarter, for now, to stick to having some boundaries." Jesse explained. "We just started our relationship, and while I have no intentions of ending it, I also don't want to rush." Jesse explained, hand on Jack's lower back. "Living together, like…for real, is a big commitment. And I think that while I'm…looking forward to it, I think it's important we figure the rest of this out first."

"Wanna sit on the bed and chat?" Jack asked, feeling ready to lie down. Jesse nodded wordlessly, and they climbed onto Jack's soft duvet and sat there together.

Jesse huffed quietly, shifting on the bed before flopping onto his back. "Well. I think I should come clean." Jesse admitted, turning his head towards Jack. "Gabe and I…well. We were a thing."

Jack nodded, putting a hand over Jesse's, "I know." He murmured, eyebrows furrowed together as he squeezed on Jesse's calloused hand. "Gabriel's mentioned things, and… well. Even before then… I had suspicions."

Jesse, frankly, looked a little dumbfounded. "What?" He asked, his front lifting off the bed as he craned his neck to look at Jack full-on. "You knew? Why didn't you say anything?"

"It was your thing to tell me." Jack explained, soft as he leaned over and kissed him, gentle. "Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me." Jesse pulled himself upright, and kissed Jack back, the two of them sinking into the embrace.

"It was about time I did." Jesse murmured, the words ghosting against Jack's skin from where they remained intertwined. "You've trusted me with a lot." He pulled away, a tender hand tracing Jack's aged edges, the calloused fingers going from temple, down his ear, his thumb trailing down his jawline. Jack felt secure, but the sensation of Jesse's hand just over his hearing aid was…unfamiliar, and new. "I just…it's been hard for me to come to terms with too. He's not the same as he was back then, and I have to respect that and his needs now."

Jack made a soft noise, hand coming up to meet Jesse's and resting there. "I think…we can keep readdressing this."

"I think we'll have to." Jesse mumbled, leaning in for another kiss. "I'm glad I have you, Jack. We'll figure out this mess…together. But for now…let's just… enjoy this."

"Wanna go on a date tomorrow?" Jack asked, eyes soft as they laid down together. "To celebrate getting moved out?"

"I'd love to." Jesse murmured, kissing Jack as the man curled into Jesse, pulling out his hearing aid to go to bed, setting it on the bedside table, before letting the comfortable silence reign once more.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was right in that it wouldn't be quite as long as a wait...but it was still a long wait.
> 
> this chapter was originally supposed 2 be like 10k, I cut it to make sure I had something to upload next week.
> 
> We're slowly getting somewhere. It's slow. but its faster than blizz's own lore releases!! Ahahaha,
> 
> ....Please, blizz, release something about Archives today. Please. My children are starving.

"So Jack  _wasn't_  joking when he said you were living like you were a single farmer in the 1930's Dust Bowl farming out of your LA apartment." Ana commented while the two of them walked into his apartment, side by side. Jesse managed not to cringe, but damn he felt called out.

"Hey, I am moving out today," Jesse reminded her, trying to scrape up his dignity from the floor where Ana had poured it out.

"It looked like this when we started!" Ashe yelled from her spot in the kitchen, making Jesse sigh and give a resigned shrug. "Don't let yourself off the hook you fuckin' bastard! You have B.O.B., Angela, myself and  _now_  Ana roped into this! We gotta get your shit into the other apartment by tonight!"

"I know, Ashe!" He yelled back. "Thank you for the fuckin' help but stop laying out my personal business like this!"

"It's hard not to when you've gone and lain it out for everyone already." Angela stepped out from the room where they were helping clean out his kitchen, holding a box full of plates, before she brightened up at the sight of Jesse and who all had come along. "Oh! I wasn't expecting you Gabriel, hello!"

Gabriel smiled from his place between Ana and Jesse, the two working to carry him on his unsteady feet.

Jesse grinned at her as he nudged Gabriel gently. "See, told you they'd be happy to see you." He murmured supportively, Ana and him walking into his living room carefully, having to help maneuver Gabriel over the garden set up in the middle of it all.

"Is the couch staying here, then?" Ana asked, and Jesse nodded, helping Gabriel down onto it.

"It is. That's why we're putting someone down here." He stretched himself out as Gabriel plopped down onto the couch, eyes wide as he took the place in. "Ow," Jesse complained, rolling his shoulders while Ana took the moment to lean forward and roll her back.

"You're getting heavy again, Gabe." Ana teased, "And I'm getting old. It's been a while since you or Jack needed me to help you like that."

Gabriel fidgeted on the couch. "Sorry," He murmured, looking guilty, before Jesse leaned forward and kissed his forehead.

"Hey, no apologizing." Jesse's voice was firm as he kept eye contact with Gabriel. "Ana and I  _offered_  to bring you along. Plus, it's good you're gaining muscle mass, Gabe. You need the weight." He stood up, ruffling Gabe's hair before he dropped his hand to his side, and shouted to the kitchen, "Ashe, how're we lookin?"

"Like your landlord was fucking you over and like you're a fuckin' slob, McCree!" She howled, making Jesse chuckle as Angela bent over and smiled at Gabriel, hovering in that way that told Jesse she wanted to do a checkup on the man.

Gabriel gave her a wan smile. "Hello, uhm…Angela?" He tried, and Angela nodded affirmatively.

"That's right. Jesse  _told_  me you weren't ready for something like this, but it's good to see you." She commented, side-eying Jesse tellingly, likely disapproving that he and Ana had to hike Gabriel up those flights of stairs.

He shifted on the couch, searching for his words. "Well, I wanted to see it…I felt…jealous last night about not knowing about it. So this morning, Jesse and Ana offered to bring me to see it when Jack said he had stuff to do at VA and none of em wanted to leave me home alone."

"There's not much to see aside from a mess," Angela murmured, her thumb rubbing over his scarred mark as she intensely side eyed Jesse a second time, before smiling at Gabriel warmly. "We'll be pretty busy today. Is that alright?"

Gabriel nodded affirmatively, licking his lips as he leaned back against the couch. "S' fine, Angela." He said honestly. "I'll prolly jus' take a nap. It was a long trip up the stairs." He yawned, emphasizing his point.

Angela pursed her lips, and Jesse took the time to carefully stretch one leg forward and start walking toward the kitchen to get in the swing of things with Ashe and B.O.B before she could get mad at him for dragging his charge along irresponsibly.

Ana chuckled as he passed her, amber eyes catching hers giving him a knowing look, and she put a blanket over Gabriel, before sitting down to work cleaning up the garden in the living room with him. Angela sighed audibly from Jesse's place in the kitchen, and the door to his apartment opened, and closed again- signaling she'd started the trip downstairs to the U-Haul they'd rented out.

Jesse sighed, and Ashe looked to him, her cheeks out and her lips flat, her eyebrows lifted as red eyes cross examined him as hard as Gabriel Reyes had after the Deadlock bust.

"Yanno, Jesse, she's gonna yell at you later." She said, after a minute of letting quiet reign. Jesse's shoulders tensed, and he set down the box he was holding, head turning to Ashe with his lips pursed.

"Mind yer own, Calamity," Jesse muttered. "I couldn't well leave him there  _alone_ , and I really do need the help."

"Oh, I can see  _that_." Ashe gestured around to the kitchen, now in complete disarray in the midst of clearing it out. "Are you going to have B.O.B. carry him down or somethin?" She asked, folding her hands and resting them atop the plastic box she was filling with all of Jesse's nonperishable food items, and setting her chin there to stare at him with her mouth quirked up into a smile.

"If he offers, well, let's jus' say Ana and I wouldn't be  _opposed_  to the assistance." Jesse agreed mildly, going to the fridge, taking a huge sip from his milk jug in order to finish off the gallon. He looked back, and Ashe's lip was curled up, her head pulled back off her hands as she turned her head ever so slightly sideways.

"You're an animal, McCree." She told him, before sitting up and continuing to pack things up.

"Oh, well, last I checked  _Weez_ \- unless you're somehow an  _omnic_  now- you're one too." Jesse reminded, only to receive a middle finger for his smart mouth and use of her obnoxious nickname.

He waltzed over to drop the now empty milk jug in the garbage bag, and settled in to actually get to doing the rough work of cleaning out years old home.

XXXXX

_The elevator opened. "Commander Reyes, Agent McCree." Moira's voice pierced through the veil of warmth between them, and their embrace broke moments later. Gabriel patted himself down, and straightened up, while McCree ducked his head and tilted his hat down, to hide his lip that curled in distaste._

_Moira was the one thing they still had yet to agree on, but McCree had trained himself to keep his mouth shut, at least._

" _I…hope I wasn't interrupting anything," She said in her coolly diplomatic way, glancing between them as she stretched out her arm, extending a file folder towards him. "You asked that I return this to you as soon as I was able, and when I saw you were heading towards me…well, I thought you would like to see your results."_

_Gabriel felt those words like a stone in his stomach. He glanced to McCree, who had lifted his gaze, and peered at Gabriel, brown eyes uneasily shifting their attention from Gabriel, back to the file folder, over to Moira. As though his partner and second didn't know which one to find issue with first._

" _I did want these results as soon as you finished your analysis, thank you for following orders." Gabriel informed her, taking the folder and lowering his hands to his sides. "McCree, I'll see you in my office later." He put a hand in the door as they threatened to close. "I think I need to discuss this matter with Dr. O'Deorain first."_

_McCree tilted his head towards Gabe in silent question, and Gabriel's forehead creased, his eyebrows scrunching together in the middle as he averted his gaze, unable to give Jesse the answers he was demanding in that moment._

_He walked out of the elevator without further questions, and the door closed behind him, Jesse folding his arms and ducking his head down to hide his accusatory look at Gabe and Moira._

_Moira stared coolly at the doors, and Gabriel sighed, before gesturing for her to take the lead. "Lets get this over with, I'm gonna get an earful later for that."_

" _Yes, sir." Moira agreed, turning on her heel and walking down the hallway. Gabriel only stared for a moment longer at the closed elevator doors, before rolling his shoulders and taking the time to spin the ring on his finger nervously as he continued down the chilly fluorescent-lit hallway of the Blackwatch base._

_Absently, Gabriel recognized that…this was a dream. He was an unwilling passenger here, putting one foot in front of the other unthinkingly._

_He paused, not wanting to watch this memory play out any further. However, as if in response to his defiance, the base got darker, filling with deep black smoke. Moira's form before him grew larger and grew into smoke, and he felt, he felt like he was choking. He looked down at himself, at his hands, as he saw black sludge coating his hands. Or was it that his hands were black sludge?_

_He could breathe fine, but he was choking. The slime filled his lungs, the smoke surrounded him- or was he the slime, was he the smoke?_

_The world got blurrier, darker, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe, there was something in his throat._

_A set of hands pulled him out._

_Moira stood over him, looking over his form as he sat in his hospital bed. Something was breathing for him- it felt…uncomfortable._

_It was still a dream. In spite of how he had been immobile then and there in time, he looked to his ring finger. The ring- his and Jesse's- was gone. His thumb met the callous where it had once rested._

_He looked to the door, Jesse, Jesse had been waiting for him? Jesse, where was he? Shouldn't he have come? Shouldn't he be there?_

_Moira's form loomed above him as she told him, "He's not coming, Gabriel. He's not here."_

"Gabriel, Gabriel,  _Gabriel._ " A voice met his ears, and he opened bleary eyes to a different, messy room, and a familiar woman before him. The piece clicked in place much faster. Ana was worriedly watching him, a hand on his cheek, wiping away wetness. His breathing was choppy, and it made his body lift away from the thing it was laying on.

The air met his face and it was cold against that wetness. There were these noises in the background that sounded like a scared animal, and foggily, he recognized them to have come from himself.

"Just breathe, Gabriel." Ana coached him softly, trying to focus his wandering, blurry gaze on herself. "It's alright- you're safe. It was a nightmare." She was failing. He heard Jesse's cry in the other room, though he couldn't hear what about. He focused on where that came from.

He was in Jesse's apartment, he heard Jesse in the other room, just out of sight. His mouth tried to move, to make words, but he grew frustrated too fast, his emotions already running high. Ana wasn't enough- he, he  _needed_  Jesse. He had waited alone; he needed to go to him,  _now_.

His body responded to his demands faster than he expected it too. It smoked away from its place on the couch, as Ana yelped, and the smoke traveled halfway down the hallway before he solidified. He heard some commotion, before he remembered something else he could do. He could  _just_ see into the kitchen, see  _Jesse_. Jesse was calling out to Ana, it seemed, but Gabriel closed his eyes and sank downwards.

Moments later, he rose in the kitchen, breathing heavily, right in front of Jesse, who was looking at him, wide-eyed.

Jesse  _was_ here. He  _had_  come. He fell against him in a half-embrace, half desperate grab for support that was matched with Jesse's own jerked motions to grab him. Gabriel still found it hard to breathe, gasping for air as his talons dug into Jesse's clothes. He heard Jesse trying to speak to him, but it all sounded like gargling in his ears. His eyes were wide, mouth gaping, as the mental switch that had granted him all this energy overloaded, and turned off.

He went limp; his knees buckling beneath him as he gave one final choked gasp, and moments later it all went dark.

XXXXX

Needless to say, the moving process came to a screeching halt as Jesse and Ashe- the two people close enough, worked to catch Gabriel as the man seized up and dropped like a stone against Jesse. The place was silent, Ana having chased after Gabriel, which had alarmed Angela into coming in from her spot in the bedroom.

No one wanted to say anything, until Jesse took all of Gabriel's weight onto himself, and slowly scooped him up. He was stunned that out of nowhere Gabriel had dashed across the place to find him and  _leap_ at him. Blood seeped out of his arms from where black claws had dug into his skin, and his motion and syncopated breath through his nose made everyone else unpause.

"What happened?" Angela asked, worried as she pushed past Ashe, pressing two fingers into Gabe's neck to check his pulse, before putting a hand on Gabriel's forehead, brow creasing as she felt no fever.

"He had a nightmare." Ana explained, taken aback. "I was trying to wake him up, but once he did he never focused on me properly, and instead launched himself off the couch as smoke." She licked her lips, guilty and unsure what to do, her fingers rubbing against her thumb as she stood there in the doorway.

"He didn't say anything?" Jesse asked, hissing lowly as Angela ran her fingers over the deep claw marks in his left arm. She looked up at him, confused by the noise, before she noticed the sensation of blood on her fingers, and turned to look at them, alarmed.

"Fuck, McCree, he really took a chunk out of you." Ashe said from the other side, examining the wound from where he'd torn open the shirt on the other side.

"Yeah." Jesse muttered, trying to walk forward. "Let's, let's do this in my den and not my kitchen, he's not a pixie."

The act of moving to the den was awkward, considering Gabriel's position in Jesse's arm and the fact the hallway was a bit narrow, but they sorted things out and gathered around the couch. Angela had laid Gabriel out flat, the man's head remained on Jesse's lap, and Ana had given Jesse a new shirt while Angela did first aid on his rather deep cuts.

"I think you need stitches on the ones from his thumbs." Ashe commented from a backwards-facing office chair, her chin placed on her crossed arms that rested against the back.

"He does." Angela remarked, wrapping it in gauze. "The right arm also needs a few stitches on some of the other gashes, but it's nothing life threatening. We can take care of that easily if we stop by the hospital, I just don't have the materials with me." She explained, sympathetic. "Does it hurt?"

"Nah, 's not too bad at all." Jesse waved a hand. "Angie, you know you patch me up good. M' just more surprised than anything that Gabe moved that fast. He's been pretty chill, and well,  _sedentary_ , wouldn't you agree, Ana?"

Ana nodded, dumbfounded as she hovered in the room, holding up the remnants of the first aid kit for Angela, "No, he's usually an angel. He sticks in one place until he's moved. But, the nails are new…"

"Well, they're actually par the course, but he probably didn't realize what he was doing when he grabbed me." Jesse explained with a face. "It's all just Reaper stuff- he's also got a real mean lookin' set of teeth, but y'all remember that, right? He's never hurt me before, I sincerely doubt he meant to."

Jesse looked down to him, where Gabriel's face was creased, turned into Jesse's lap as the rest of him stretched over the couch.

"Jesse, even though he didn't mean to hurt you, you still need to go get stitches." Angela scolded. "I have my car, I'll take you there to get it resolved."

"Can we just leave Gabe here? He did just launch across the house to grab me." Jesse asked, concerned, and Angela calmly asked Jesse for his prescription bag with a sigh.

"He's dealing with one of his mood swings, and while I am glad you have been trying to deal with things without his prescriptions, there are cases where they are needed and give him the best outcome the fastest. He's anxious enough that even after moving across the whole house he's still clenched up." Angela explained, voice soft.

She sat Gabriel up, and with her expertise, managed to get him to swallow a pill.

"There." Angela announced, gesturing towards Gabriel with an air of "see? It's fine," before she grabbed and pulled Jesse's hand. "Now, we do need to go take care of you. He's fine where he is, Ana will be close by, and everything will get done, Jesse."

Jesse felt something thick like a rock in his throat, and he wasn't quite sure of what to say, or how to say it. He felt guilty, leaving Gabriel there, his face still crunched up as his body moved in discomfort. He felt worse thinking about how his friends were cleaning up his apartment for him.

"It will take less than an hour  _Jesse_." Angela sighed. "Elizabeth, help me out here?"

Ashe's face, now pink, responded by grabbing Jesse's prosthetic and  _yanking_  him up with all their usual roughness. Angela slowly lowered Gabriel back down to lie down, and Angela crossed her arms. Jesse stared at Angela wide-eyed, before turning to Ashe and asking, head tilted towards her in bewilderment, " _Elizabeth_?"

"That's my name, don't wear it out, Jesse." She groused, pale face reddening further as his eyebrows somehow climbed further up his face.

"Come on, Jesse." Angela ordered crossly, her eyebrows furrowing as she folded her arms and tapped a clacking flat against the tile of his den. "Gabriel's fine where he is, you need stitches, leave Elizabeth alone, and come with me."

"Alright, alright." Jesse gave in, looking towards Gabe on the couch as he walked towards the door. "We'll be back, I'll owe y'all a big favor, and…well. See you in an hour." He managed to get out before Angela pushed him out the door.

XXXXX

The next time Gabe woke up, it was to a very large omnic poking at him, squatting before his place on the couch. The scene was familiar at this point, and Gabriel gave B.O.B. a sleepy smile, rubbing his eyes as he moved to sit up.

B.O.B. handed him a water bottle, and he obediently took several sips from it. He was a bit hungry too, and this was immediately fixed when B.O.B. handed a few small sandwiches to eat. He was sat up, and realized he was still in Jesse's apartment, and not the store. There wasn't a lot of noise, and the place looked a lot emptier. But, B.O.B. was still here, meaning…they were probably just trying to pack up the U-Haul downstairs.

"Thanks," Gabriel managed after chewing for several moments.

B.O.B.'s face wasn't equipped to move, but he seemed pleased. Gabriel thought that would be it, and moved to lie back down, before B.O.B. held out a small black box. On it, in familiar handwriting, was written: "GABE'S."

Reading was still, frankly, a hassle, but it was easy to recall Jesse's scratchy yet dignified handwriting, even more so to recognize his name.

Gabriel took it from B.O.B., and turned the box over and over in his hands. He ran his fingers over Jesse's handwriting, trying desperately to recall the man times Jesse had written this and coming up short. It looked like a tiny little present, but the note just seemed off.

Try as he might, he couldn't remember what would be inside it. So he opened it.

Inside there was a golden ring. Instinctively, his thumb went to his left hand, and felt the dent in his ring finger where this must have been. He knew what it was sooner than he recalled other details: it was a wedding ring.

He heard a commotion coming from the hallway outside, and he pocketed the box. B.O.B. had left, gone back to the kitchen to put away the food and drink. Even though Jesse and Jack had been working with him on the matter, he was still used to pretending to be asleep when commotion came to him.

The door opened. "Alright, that's a wrap everybody!" Jesse announced, looking around the place. "Can't believe we did it. Let's grab Gabe and head on out."

Jesse's footsteps approached him, and Gabriel appreciated that, in the quieter hustle, pretending to be asleep sometimes yielded the best results. "C'mon, Gabe, s' time to go." Jesse whispered to him, caught between trying to wake him up and just… talking to him. There was a soft feeling on his face, a calloused thumb making its way across his chin. The blanket he'd been under was wrapped around him tighter, the metal hand slowly working its way around Gabriel.

He was slowly picked up, and B.O.B. took him down the stairs a lot more gracefully than Jesse and Ana had taken him up. Tenderness swelled through him and reminded him of all those suspicions that Jesse was someone important, even if many of the details were still missing.

His skin tingled from where Jesse had touched him; the whisper of his name sending thrilling shivers through him. His ring felt heavy, yet secure in his pocket. He recalled having a black box like this before, and vaguely looking at Jesse- younger, surer, and bolder- while hiding it away like this.

He opened up his eyes and looked towards the back of Jesse's head as he walked down the stairs. He turned the box with the ring over and over again in his pocket, remembering Jesse as he was, before.

His eyes dropped to Jesse's arm, recalling a ring sitting on that left finger, meeting his own fingers and rubbing it with his other thumb, feeling that sense of security that came with…partnership.

Gabriel's eyes were met with a cold metal arm and empty metal digits, a prosthetic in its place from the elbow down. Jesse's usual red serape covered it moments later, and he then realized that…it did that most of the time. His brain worked through that, and he found quickly that he couldn't remember when, exactly, that had happened.

He could only recall that Jesse preferred his right hand now.

He could only see that the ring- the one which matched the one in the box- was gone.

XXXXX

"Oh, wow, Jess." Jack looked around the new apartment as they walked through it together, Gabriel having been put to bed already for their date. "The place really looks nice."

"It'll look even better when I get around to unpacking." Jesse joked, rolling his eyes as he lit a few candles for them both to enjoy some mood lighting. "You're just saying that 'cause you can see the floor."

"I mean, don't get me wrong, it's certainly a plus." Jack teased back, chuckling as they sat at Jesse's brand new dining room. "It's actually really nice, Jess. Why on earth were you living in, well, such a  _shithole_  if you could afford the rent on this place?"

Jesse's smile went a little wan, before he rubbed his neck and leaned back, crossing his legs at the ankles as he rolled his neck and felt some cracking of ligaments. "Well, part of what Ashe has been doing now that she fuckin' knows what I was doing was bugging me to go get what I was owed by the VA. We both hate her daddy, but damn if he didn't make a little finance shark outta her."

"Oh, you're  _finally_  getting what you're owed? You mentioned being Gabe's second, but, well…frankly, I had no idea what it was Gabe did after he broke off from our main organization aside from being black ops."

At Jack's stumbled explanation, Jesse's smile quirked back up slightly, and he chuckled. "I mean, black ops  _is_  the general description of what it was we were, but if you want  _specifics,_ I suppose I can tell you how Gabe picked me up all those years ago."

Jack settled there, giving an interested nod. "Yeah, I'd love to know that kind of thing."

Jesse rocked up from his new dining chair, and searched through a box of clothes, and pulled out a specific black belt- old and worn out by time. "I told you the vaguest of details back when, didn't I? That he picked me up as some punk in the American Southwest, right? We changed the symbol well enough most folks can't really see what it was we were, but…you might recall it."

Jack was leaning forward, neck craning to try and see what it was that Jesse was bringing him, the thing he kept trapped in his hand, kept close to his heart like all things about his past.

He opened his palm, and Jack's eyes bulged. Jesse chuckled, setting down the golden Deadlock logo from his younger days. "So you do." Jesse smugly commented, settling back down in the chair, rocking back slightly before letting the feet of the chair fall back down to the floor.

"You were a member of  _Deadlock_?" Jack asked, seeming torn by the revelation.

Jesse considered the question for a moment, before deciding to just lay it out there already. "I'd consider myself to be more than just a member, but rather, I  _was_  Deadlock. Me and Ashe were, that is. Sure, there were two other fuckers who founded it with us, but…apparently it's been a blue moon since either of us have seen em. They technically helped us open this front up, but…as you can see, it's jus' me and Ashe now."

Jack's gears were turning now, rapidly. Jesse almost laughed at seeing them turn like that, his blue eyes alight with thought, face crinkled at the wrinkles at its sides.

"So Reyes took you, Ashe…all of Deadlock down." Jack reasoned, and Jesse nodded, letting him solve this mystery. Jack was a smart cookie; he'd be able to figure it out. "And…Agent Shimada, he was one of the heirs of the Shimada clan, who Gabe had hired as well around the same time as their ultimate collapse following the disappearance of both heirs…"

Jack's eyebrows skyrocketed. "Gabe's targets weren't  _omnics_. They were humans."

"Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that they were  _Gabe's_ choice of targets, but yeah, we had orders to go after pocket cells of either humans aiding directly in the crisis, or those taking advantage of the crisis to do…well, yanno." He waved a hand. "By the end, there were a  _couple_  missions I wasn't really comfortable with…but it was under Gabe's leadership, and he had his orders. I wish it had ended differently," he gave a forced chuckle. "As if  _that_  weren't obvious, but…well. Government and the UN owed lil ol' me a pretty penny for the trouble I went through treading through all that grey area."

Jack was frankly, a bit lost for words. He wrung his hands on the table for a bit, digesting that, sitting on it, trying to sort through it.

And then he looked up towards Jesse again, eyes soft. "You know, Jess, with all that considered, it's really something that you've gotten this far from where you were."

Jesse had been expecting a lot of things- questions, anger perhaps, demands to know more about the true nature of that grey world he and Gabe and lived in as Blackwatch. Instead, Jack leaned forward with a kiss, and Jesse met him in the middle of the table. Their fingers intertwined as they held hands like that.

The kiss broke moments later, and Jesse chuckled, making Jack match him with a mirthful huff of breath out his nose.

"I almost thought you were gonna be angry." Jesse murmured, and Jack shrugged.

"If I was a younger man, I would have thought worse of you but…well. Times have changed me. I can see the need for those types of…missions now. Gabe was always better at that sort of thinking. Though, I did miss him, and I also missed him being my boss."

"I knew there was a central organization, but I frankly didn't know much of it." Jesse commented, expecting Jack to fill in the details for him. "I also knew Gabe ran it, but he'd gotten moved. He'd told me that much."

"It was just over 10 years after the crisis started that we'd been split into two halves of an organization." Jack obliged, sighing. "I only vaguely remember the Deadlock bust from the news, and not even from within house… but he'd been the leader of that group for about a year by the time he picked you up."

"Sounds right." Jesse remarked, rubbing his shoulder. "He and I wrote the damn book of that organization. The position wasn't just some unofficial shit, I was damn good at my job."

"And now you're a florist." Jack teased sweetly, feigning innocence as he stood up to go get them a few beers. "Oh wait; I'm sorry…what was it you called yourself… a  _fucking_  florist."

That caught Jesse in a huff of breath, and he choked, before he burst into a howl of laughter. "Hey, hey now. That's uncalled for, Jack." He wheezed, shaking his head. "S' just as weird to me too. If Gabe could  _remember_  it, he'd think it was the funniest damn thing since I was fired from a cover job."

Jack perked up. "That sounds like a story," he murmured conspiratorially, eyes lit up.

"It is." Jesse agreed, pursing his lips as he used his new table as a way to take the top off the bottle. Jack rolled his eyes at the gesture, but opened his with the opener and set it on the table without comment. "The lady  _did_  have it coming." He pouted, and Jack snickered.

"Should we start this story after we order in dinner?" Jack murmured, taking out his phone and shaking it slightly. "Since I get the feeling that we're not gonna be cooking."

"What gave that away, the lack of a stove?" Jesse rolled his eyes as he rolled up off his seat. "Yeah, let's order. I'm gonna check on Gabe, put this old thing away," He picked the belt up off the table again, and meandered to Gabriel's makeshift room.

He opened the door, and honestly, he felt some kind of unease wash over him. Something felt off, and the hair on the back of his neck stood up straight.

Gabriel was laying, face up on the bed. His face was blank, scar puffing up on his forehead, the lighter skin glistening tellingly in the light that Jesse hadn't realized he'd left on. His breathing was even, but sitting there, watching from the doorframe made Jesse sick.

Gabe shouldn't be like this. Jesse hated having to reconcile that thought with the man lying before him. He should have been out there with him and Jack, already playfully ripping into Jesse for his outburst in Venice.

He was like this because of Jesse, and that really hurt to recall. He was stuck like this, he couldn't even remember half those things, and while Jesse knew that Gabe was likely all too aware of how romantic they were, it was easy enough to just blow him off. That felt wrong too, but…He didn't want to overwhelm Gabe, or maybe he didn't want to overwhelm himself.

Jesse didn't think Gabe was ready to be out there with him and Jack yet. Not with where he was. He felt guilty that Gabe was stuck this way, stuck sleeping at 8pm because the days activities had worn him out. Stuck with a baby monitor in his room at Ana's advice, following the incident today that ended with Jesse needing about 10 stitches between all the different cuts.

He wasn't how Jesse remembered him. He also probably wasn't how he wanted to be.

Gabriel's feelings towards him were growing hard to ignore, and Jesse didn't actively discourage any of them. That in turn was starting to put a small strain on Jack…who Jesse had really started to feel for as well.

This would be an easy discussion, if all 3 parties were ready for them. Jesse didn't think Gabe was, and more than that, he didn't even know if he himself was ready to…really, truly accept Gabe for who he was now, and hold him how he used to.

That felt wrong of him to even  _think_ , and he felt some complex type of disgust with himself for even thinking of Gabe as being some whole brand new person. It was still Gabe, in all the ways that mattered. He was different, and had new needs. But he was happy, and he was back.

Jesse felt resolved at that, and so he walked through the doorframe, instead of standing as that passive observer. He slowly leaned over and kneeled down. "Goodnight, Gabe, I'll see you in the morning." He whispered gently, rubbing Gabriel's scar quietly. He leaned forward further, not wanting for anyone but him to hear him say, "I love you," he pressed a tender kiss to his cheek, only slightly short of his lips.

He broke away, standing up again, knees and back complaining the whole time. He turned around, and headed back out to where Jack was yelling for his order. Jesse looked back for a moment, to see Gabriel had moved slightly, curling up in his blanket, face decidedly more peaceful- instead of that painful blank expression.

He flicked the lights back off, and closed the door as he asked Jack where they were ordering from tonight.

Moira finally breathed out, and reappeared in a puff of smoke.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So its a bit early in the week, I did say that this would be coming this weekend, but believe it or not i think that this is about wrapped up. I love drama but I also love having my boys be happy. theres gonna be one or two more chapters and then I think im finished here! Yeah!!
> 
> Thanks to Blaine + Nicole for being super fucking supportive of my project!! I love u both and hopefully this story will finish up in a way you both are happy with !!

"So, you and Angela don't like each other…because of some paper you published?" Gabriel asked quietly, sitting up on his bed, propped up by a bunch of pillows and wrapped in a blanket. "That seems…silly."

"I'm well aware." Moira agreed in her hushed tone, rolling her eyes. "It's, frankly, entirely ridiculous, but I'm beyond trying to convince her she's wrong about someone."

"And Jesse doesn't like you all that much either." Gabriel hummed, rubbing the ring between his fingers, playing with the idea of wearing it.

"McCree has  _never_  really seen eye to eye with me, as he's more inclined to Angela's position." She explained, sipping her hot tea as they sat alone in the dim light of Moira's makeshift lab equipment. "It makes sense, as they were good friends."

"So why did I trust you?" Gabriel asked with a frown. "Jack and Ana have no clue who you are, n' they're from before I met Jesse, you've said. Angela and Jesse are more recent relationships and they really don't like you at all. So what made  _me_  trust you?"

Moira sighed, rubbing her thumb on the lip of her mug, letting the sounds of the machine testing Gabriel's blood for her hum in the background for a moment. "Frankly, I cannot vouch if you ever truly  _trusted_  me, Gabriel." She admitted, her blunt honesty refreshing. "I would like to believe I did, that we were friends, even, but I have no such  _proof_. What I do have proof of though, is that you needed me."

"Right, you said Jesse didn't like you but he also didn't… force you out." He did a circular wave of his hand.

"Yes, Gabriel. He tolerated me." She agreed, sitting in the quiet dark with him. "But he did so because you needed me. And that was because you, Gabriel, were very sick. And that's the extent of our relationship that I have any proof of."

"I was sick?" Gabriel pressed, concerned.

"Dying, really." Moira sighed, hearing the machine finish its cycle and standing up from the bed, placing her teacup on his bed frame as she went to check on that. "Do you recall anything about…the SEP?"

Gabriel thought hard on that. "It rings a bell." He tentatively informed her. "I don't know what it  _means_ , though."

Moira removed the blood from the centrifuge and sighed as she got to work on it, distractedly explaining things to him. "Well, as it relates to you, its why you can turn your body to smoke. It's also why Morrison can pick you up and carry you without aid. It did different things to all the people in it." Moira didn't raise her eyes, and Gabriel's brow furrowed as she dropped Jack's name in there casually.

However, she was distracted, and barreled on. "Unfortunately, you became radically more unstable with time. Your condition was incredibly dangerous to your general health, and worse, you were well aware it could have passed onto your children. Unfortunately, as it was wartime, the US government conveniently refused you the means to recover… figuring one way or another, you were likely to die. It wasn't like there was someone else with any means to treat you." The last part was stated dripping in sarcasm, and Gabriel chuckled.

"I'm guessing you had those means."

"I  _did_." Moira agreed, huffing as she looked to him in exasperation. "The paper which made many people hate me, including our dear Dr. Ziegler and cowboy…was the same one which gave you a new option for treatment."

"So I didn't die." Gabriel remarked, humming as he sat on that.

"In spite of your best efforts to, yes," She dryly remarked, reaching up and poking his scar on his forehead with a long fingernail.

"Ow." Gabriel winced at the contact. "You need to cut those things."

"Is it bad that I already do?" Moira murmured, returning to her work as Gabriel rubbed the mark himself, feeling oddly self-conscious about it out of nowhere.

"Why do people like to touch it so much, anyway?" He asked, used to her blunt responses and expecting nothing else. He wanted a clear answer, and he figured it was beyond time he got one.

"I imagine because it's the most visually distinct difference between you now and then. It's quite hard to reconcile with the scar itself, let alone the memories attached to it, I suspect." She hummed, slowly twirling some substance inside another glass flask.

Gabriel frowned, sitting on that, unsure of how he felt about it.

"Why did you come back?" He asked, deciding to switch the subject. "If I  _was_  sick, I guess I'm not anymore. So why come for me?"

Moira sat there on the floor, her long lanky legs crossed beneath her as she worked on her tests. She looked up from her work and her eyes softened in a way that was a bit uncharacteristic for her, from Gabe's perspective. She had always had this distance between them that was unspoken, even though she treated him with the most dignity out of anyone.

"It's true that you're not dying, but your genetic condition is still my responsibility." Moira emphasized. "If I didn't keep tabs on you, run tests to ensure your body hadn't rejected some change we did years earlier… you would very possibly die." She murmured. "Then, again, there's the underlying assumption I had made that you and I, to some degree, were friends." She slowly pulled out her sheets to examine things halfheartedly. "A perhaps silly thought, but one that I indulged in regardless. There are few people who listen to me for any reason these days. Let alone in the field I am an expert in."

Gabriel wasn't quite sure of how to feel about that either. Was Moira his friend?

Instantly, he thought of Ashe and McCree, the way they bit into each other, and yet…always seemed to have each others back.

"I think we are friends." Gabriel answered her honestly. "You've…been here for me for a long time. I can't say much about the past… but, I think you're my friend now." He finished, feeling lame and unfulfilled.

Moira stood up, came over to him and rubbed his shoulder. "Well, the good news is that your results are normal, more or less. I was concerned when you vanished and I had no leads as to where you went, but apparently I had nothing to worry about. You're due for treatment soon, so just take it easy."

"Hey, its your work. I'm not going anywhere or…" Gabriel waved a hand. "Doing anything. Now you know where I am. Thanks for…finding me." He mumbled, wringing his hands as he debated on lying down. "I find it easier to ask you some of these questions. Jack and Jesse…sometimes I feel like they give me non answers."

"I have been told my bluntness is my most pronounced quality, for better or worse." She agreed tacitly. "It isn't that easy getting in here, let alone hiding in here. I was half convinced McCree was going to discover me, but he was distracted. I might not be back for a while."

"Should I tell them you visited?" He asked, earnestly.

Moira shifted uncomfortably. "At your discretion." She finally said. "It might backfire spectacularly, but you already knew such a thing. I could care less of their opinion of me, but the things I've done to keep myself afloat following our organization's dissolution…well. I'd not like McCree to find out where I've found the means to treat you."

"Moira," Gabriel paused, her discomfort registering palpably. "What have you done?"

Moira wasn't really able to meet his gaze. "It's nothing that concerns you anymore, Gabriel." She calmly explained, but she seemed guilty. "I've done what I've needed to, and you're on the other side of this, after all this time." She finally looked towards him, hardened again. "Its best, in my opinion, we keep my presence quiet. But you can make this decision on your own."

She packed up her things, and snapped her briefcase closed. "With all that said, I do need to be off. My ride is…obnoxious, and I am late."

"I was wondering when you two would finally finish."

A new woman, far younger than anyone Gabriel had contact with, suddenly appeared in their midst. Gabriel, taking Moira's cue, didn't react.

"Sombra." Moira stated cordially, her blue eye in Gabriel's view looking particularly icy as she watched her. "I am paying you no small amount for your services. I would expect your patience in the matter, and for you to wait in the  _car_."

"Oh, I was waiting  _very_  patiently." Sombra explained, stretching herself out, unbothered by Moira's cold reception and how Gabriel matched her expression one for one. "Unfortunately, you forget that all of Gabe's  _friends_  are ex-military. The shorter woman was staking out my position, so I figured it was time to take a walk, grab some street food- there's this  _nice_  Korean taco place around the corner to visit, make a few calls like I'm waiting for someone…and then ditch my tail to come tell you we should be going."

Moira's lip curled upwards. "That would be Amari." She rubbed her face. "Fine. Let's go. At least next time we won't have to track McCree down from the VA again…"

Moira offered Gabriel a final pat on the back, and dipped her head towards him, before the two vanished out his window.

He moved, watching the ground, only mildly shocked to watch them reappear on the streets below, and walk off calmly, vanishing into the greyness of the early hours of the morning.

Gabriel lay back down, and finally closed his eyes, thoughts swirling in his head as he pondered over that SEP, and how Jack fit into that story. He'd taken for granted that Jack was a friend, but… where did he factor in? He also cursed himself, for not asking about the ring…but he supposed, he could ask Jesse directly about it tomorrow, after Jack went home…but instead he just pocketed it, turning those thoughts over and over in his mind until finally, sleep claimed him.

XXXXX

" _Can't believe Vincent's actually married now." It took him a moment, but Gabriel turned to the side, and was a bit shocked to recognize Jack Morrison's muscled form. The man was in a suit and tie, and was holding a glass of whiskey, one of those fancy ice balls in the middle._

" _I can't believe the schmuck married someone other than you." Gabriel's voice came unasked for, and Jack gave him a wan smile._

_Jack looked much, much younger. There was no scar across his face- there was just a head of blonde hair and deep blue eyes that looked warmly at Gabriel, giving some kind of half hearted laugh._

" _Syd's very nice, Gabe." Jack disagreed, shaking his head. "I just…we broke things off less than a year ago. He just…left the military and found someone new, and got it all together in less than a_ _ **year**_ _."_

_Gabriel shrugged, sipping his beer. "I mean, my wife and I got hitched as soon as she heard I was being deployed. If you want it to happen, it'll happen."_

_Jack's happiness vanished in an instant, and Gabriel suddenly felt like the biggest piece of shit in the world. "Hey man, I know you wanted it to happen." He awkwardly tried to soothe. "And it'll still happen! Just you fuckin' wait, Vincent was one dude in a whole ass sea of men- there are plenty of other fish there. And as your_ _**best** _ _friend, Jack Morrison, I'll have you know that if I were gay and single, I'd be lining my ass up to be that next fish caught." He nudged Jack to try and pull him out of his doom and gloom._

_Jack snorted, shaking his head. "Gabe, knock it off. It's… alright. I really am happy for them." He said unconvincingly, and they both looked back towards the dance floor from their place on the balcony. Two men danced in the middle, looking at each other like they were in their own little world._

" _You just wish it'd have been you down there," Gabriel said what Jack wasn't able, and Jack didn't cry, but his eyes looked suspiciously shiny as he tucked his lips into his mouth, and nodded silently._

" _Yeah." Jack's voice cracked. "I really do wish it'd have been me."_

_He rubbed Jack with his left hand, and he looked down to his wedding ring._

_This one was different, and to see that subtle change shocked him to his core._

XXXXX

Gabriel woke up to an opened door. Jack had come through the room, and was standing at the window. He held his phone in his head, the machine on speakerphone, his voice low out of respect for the person sleeping there.

"Yeah, the window is open," He said in confirmation, closing it with one hand almost effortlessly. Jack turned towards the bed, and caught Gabe's eyes. "Oh, morning." He gave a sheepish smile. "Sorry for waking you up, uh, hey Ana? Let me call you back, I'll ask Gabe about it- he just woke up."

He pressed the button to hang up the call quickly, and sat on Gabriel's bed.

It was sort of strange to go from the memory of Jack to what he was now, however he felt strangely more secure than ever as Jack put his phone down on the comforter and gave Gabriel a more earnest smile.

"Morning." Gabriel managed, "What were you and Ana talking about?"

"Ana saw something last night that worried her." He explained after a minute- apparently not expecting Gabriel to ask before Jack was able to ask his question. "She thought Jesse and her had a tail from the VA the other day, but…well. She saw the tail again. So Gabe, why's the window open?" Instantly, Gabriel recalled Moira and the 'Sombra' woman, and how they'd spoken about having Amari following them. Her name clicked better into place.

He pursed his lips, because…well. It was his choice, and he did agree that it was probably a bad idea to give fuel to the fire.

"I opened the window." He explained away, not fully untruthfully either. "There was nice weather yesterday."

Jack nodded, humming as he accepted that with ease. Gabe almost felt guilty for lying, but…Moira hadn't done anything bad. She'd just been making sure he was still healthy. The benefits to telling him didn't outweigh the risks.

Instead, he changed subjects. "I had a dream about you last night."

Jack, who had definitely been about to stand, paused, and looked to Gabriel curiously. "Oh, really? What did you dream about?"

"I don't remember a lot of details." He said, honestly, scratching his head. He always remembered things so clearly, and losing them always sucked. "But…you were blonde? I think there was a wedding. You were upset." He bit his lip as he thought about it, before focusing in on a detail that had stood out. "I called myself your best friend?"

Jack seemed surprised. "Yeah, that…sounds like Vincent's wedding." Jack agreed, rubbing his neck. "What an odd thing to dream about." He murmured, tilting his head and thinking hard about it.

Gabriel sat there, uncertain as to their relationship. Jack didn't confirm or deny the best friend details. He shifted, before pressing on it. "Were we really best friends?"

The man looked to Gabe owlishly. "Of course we were." Jack explained, confused. "I'd like to say we still are."

Something felt intensely uncomfortable between them then. Gabriel's jealousy burned in the front of his chest and blocked his throat from agreeing, and Jack clearly wasn't sure about what it was he wanted to say. They broke eye contact, and Jack's fingers went to his mouth, pressing on his lips, the bed sunk beneath him.

"I should…call Ana back." Jack murmured, voice soft, fingers muffling his voice lowly as the words sat heavily in the space between them.

"Wait." Gabriel spoke up, looking to him, just shy of desperate. He didn't want Jack to leave. Those negative emotions in his chest constricted at Jack just…leaving again. It hurt him somewhere deep, and echoed back off a memory just out of reach.

He could barely recall it, but Moira had said offhandedly at some point in their many meetings that…everyone else had left. Jesse had run and Jack had left him- Ana…he had no clear picture of. They'd all left him like that, as dead.

He didn't want him to leave again.

"W-what's the SEP?" He asked, voice tight, grasping for something, anything to keep Jack there, a little bit longer- if only to ease the tension between them even mildly. He couldn't remember when all this distance had gotten there, and Jack apparently hadn't ever noticed.

Jack clearly was torn between leaving and answering him. He turned the phone over and over again in his hands. And then he spoke.

"It stands for the Soldier Enhancement Program." Jack clarified, half-hearted. "When you and I were…younger, we went through it together. Survived it together, really." He glanced towards Gabriel, before he looked away. "Your… _Reaper_  traits are from it. Though…I never knew about that. You could ask Jesse for more."

A surge of sickness coursed through him, and Gabriel tilted forward slightly, hand going to balance him. The uneasiness and tension in the room came to a head, the burning in his stomach boiled up in his throat. He then quickly realized that he was actually choking on something.

Jack, who had just started to stand, looked towards him. Whatever he said was drowned out by pounding in his head, and he felt compelled to open his mouth. Black sludge dripped out, burning him the entire time. His vision became filled with black, and the last thing he saw was Jack rushing towards him, mouth moving with words Gabriel couldn't hear.

XXXXX

As Jack sat in bed, emailing his professor that something came up at home that prevented him from leaving on time, he felt like…a unique piece of shit.

He hadn't ever realized how much distance had grown between him and Gabe, and when he had finally recognized it, he had blamed Gabriel for keeping secrets. But, which came first, the secrets or the distance? He felt uncertain about his ability to answer that correctly. He wanted so desperately to say the secrets came and that was what caused the distance.

Gabriel's closed lids fluttered, black sludge inching out of them as he shuddered and groaned.

He didn't want to be wrong.

How odd it was, for Gabe to remember Vincent's wedding out of the blue.

" _Jack Morrison,_   _I'll have you know that if I were gay and single, I'd be lining my ass up to be that next fish caught."_ Gabe had professed with his usual theatrics, and Jack had told him to knock it off, not in the mood for Gabe to say something like that.

Little had Gabe known, Jack would have loved for Gabe to be gay and single, because Jack had loved Gabe.

But little had  _Jack_  known; Gabriel  _did_  like men. After all that time thinking it was just his friend trying to comfort him, turns out there might be reason to reconsider Gabriel's passionate declaration. It was concealed- but Jack should have wondered the role Gabe's family played in him not acknowledging those feelings.

Gabriel shuddered on the bed, and Jack stroked back the long brown hair, grown out and feeling gross from how sick Gabriel seemed on the bed.

Which came first? The distance or the secrets?

Jack had never asked Gabe about anything. Gabriel had always been a strong leader; Jack didn't want to let his legacy down. He wanted to be strong too, and Gabriel had a lot on his plate too.

But he didn't even know what Gabriel  _did_  for the war, after the split. Gabriel had been all by himself in a new organization, and Jack had wanted to fill his shoes. How come Jack had never asked him  _anything?_ Not even about how his wife was doing. They wanted to save the world- they'd had no choice, but they were in it together. That's why they'd joined the SEP together, to try anything.

But Jack had already been feeling lonely, having just watched his longtime partner marry himself off, and feeling resigned to being alone. He'd been in love with his straight friend who was  _married_.

He had wanted time to recover.

Vincent had told him, in those final weeks, that one of the things that drove them apart was Jack's single-minded drive for service. He often felt forgotten and left behind. Like Jack wouldn't give him the time of day because he had an international mission to take care of and Vincent was still US military exclusively.

Had Gabe felt the same? Isolated, left behind? Kept in the shadow of Jack's work.

When did Gabriel divorce his wife? When had his condition developed?

He recalled some waves around the Moira figure that Angela and Jesse had told him about, and when he'd dug up the research, he'd been pretty convinced they were right to mistrust her…

But why had Gabriel never said a word about any of it?

" _Were we really best friends?" He'd asked, his expression unsure, dark eyes watching Jack almost… almost like he didn't_ _ **trust**_ _Jack._

That thought made Jack freeze, quiet, his hand hovering where it'd been about to rub Gabriel's creased brow down.

Gabriel didn't fully trust him anymore. The man coughed, and Jack's hand started moving once more. .

Jack and him had been best friends. Once. But Jack couldn't remember when that stopped being true, and worse yet; he couldn't even say who it was that took that fatal step away from the other. The idea that it was him left his hand shaky, even as it wiped black slimy tears away from where Gabriel twitched on his lap.

Jesse's name lit up the screen; saying he was on his way home, and Gabriel would be fine, Jack just needed to keep an eye on him.

He wasn't going anywhere. Tears came unbidden as he wondered when it was that they'd broke.

XXXXX

When Jesse came in, he was surprisingly calm. Jack couldn't imagine holding it together in the face of Gabriel leaking black fluid, and yet Jesse just pulled Gabriel on up, checked his vitals- the man's body flopping around like a ragdoll- and opened Gabriel's mouth.

"Jack, I might not watch this." He advised, not explaining, opting to just press Gabriel's glistening fangs into his arm. As though it was the lightening to Frankenstein's creation, Gabriel's body jerked to life, and his jaw hinged around Jesse's arm. He wasn't… _draining_  him, per say, but instead biting him over and over, damaging the wound.

The slime stopped dripping, the black eyes cleared themselves- turning red. Jack watched, in horrified curiosity, as Jesse pushed Gabriel off as he started to improve. He fished something out of his bag, and shoved it in Gabriel's mouth. Whatever it made a distinct crunching noise- the telltale way plastic did- and Gabriel's attention was entirely directed to it.

Jesse's arm looked nothing short of  _mauled_ , and yet he seemed absolutely calm about it. He put his arm beneath Gabriel's apparent  _toy_ , and yellow liquid dribbled out. As though nothing happened, the wound began to close.

McCree unclenched his fist, and let out the breath he was holding. With practiced ease, he pulled Gabriel against him, the man's attention completely held by whatever it was he had in his mouth. Jesse used the blanket on the bed to wipe up the rest of his mess, before he turned to Jack, focused.

"So, what happened?" He asked, while Jack's mouth hung open.

"Wh-what happened? I should be asking  _you_ that?" He exclaimed, gesturing to them both in shock.

"It seemed like Gabriel needed to feed- meaning he probably, unfortunately, needs… his treatment." Jesse said, distastefully, rolling his shoulder. "He can recover by, well, dealing damage to others. That lil plastic ball was one of Moira's…well,  _inventions_. Bottled up regenerative energy made from poor sap we killed back then." As I don't particularly like being chewed on, it was the most effective way to, you know,  _feed_  him."

"You're saying those words all  _very_  nonchalantly," Jack murmured, a bit terrified, eyes wide.

Jesse shrugged. "It doesn't actually bother me that much. Its just part of Gabe, and its also part of why it wasn't feasible for him to get put in a home somewhere."

"No kidding." Jack agreed, feeling like that last bit was just stating the obvious. "He could have just chomped down on some poor old lady."

"Not too sure if he would have done it autonomously, as you saw, I kinda had to jump start the process." Jesse disagreed. "But we don't know how hungry he was either. Which leads me back to the question, what happened? He doesn't get like this out of nowhere, and we've not seen any other signs of him being hungry."

Jack felt like Jesse was silently accusing him of something, and he got a bit defensive. "I had no idea this could happen." He argued quietly, hands balling and then relaxing repeatedly.

"I didn't think you did." Jesse agreed calmly. "But we have to know what set him off."

Jack felt…pinned down, and he couldn't just  _lie_. Gabriel would tell Jesse later, or Jack could explain now. He sighed, the sound short to match how his chest was tight with uncertainty. He didn't want to lie, either.

"Gabriel was talking about a dream he had last night, and he asked me if we'd really been friends." Jack eventually settled on. "He asked me about the SEP, I told him you might know more than me…and then we were both, sort of upset, but I was about to go when he started, well, you know."

Jesse nodded, pensive, stroking Gabriel's long hair unthinkingly.

"He probably needs a treatment." Jesse eventually said, voice heavy. "Meaning… Moira." His lips curled in distaste, "He used to be triggered by emotional distress, so…well, I guess between yesterday and today, he finally had a full blown episode." Jesse looked down to Gabriel, and sighed. "Reaper's at full strength, Gabe's not."

Jack felt understanding dawn on him. "He's triggered by emotional distress," he murmured. "And he's got a brain injury."

"Yep. We're fucked." Jesse took out a cigar and lit it with a quick hand movement, taking a long drag.

"Well, we'll just keep him more in line." Jack tried to see the bright side. "If he can't afford to be this emotional…what can we do to help this?" He felt like something was flickering nervously inside him, as he watched Jesse take another drag from his cigar, pulling it out to speak.

"I wonder if he feeds off our responses." Jesse thought aloud, casually. "I yelled loudly at Ashe after she accidentally stepped on my foot, and Gabe came running."

The light bulb clicked for Jack moments after. "And…I was upset about his comment. So he got upset."

Jesse nodded, putting his cigar back between his teeth to casually smoke from. "Yep. We gotta put on our big boy pants." He agreed, rubbing Gabriel's hair. "And that might mean rolling with his punches." Slowly, he laid Gabriel right back on down in bed, and tucked him in. "I think…s' time we all have a chat. About. Relationships." He rolled his hand, and Jack felt his stomach sink.

That sounded…ominous.

Jesse stood on up, and Jack followed him. "Alright, well." Jack wrung his hands. "I should get home- my neighbor let out Trooper last night, but… I have to get home and feed him."

"Alright." Jesse nodded. "Will I see you tonight?"

Jack debated on that. "It might be hard for me to swing by your place tonight, but…I'll be in town- might come by the store before I go to class tonight." He agreed, giving Jesse a smile. "Won't have time for any big talks, but… a kiss, maybe."

"A kiss now too." Jesse leaned forward suddenly and kissed him tenderly. "And a kiss later," He whispered as he pulled away slightly, and Jack shivered at the sensation.

"I won't have any complaints about that." Jack agreed with a slowly growing smile, Jesse's arms securely wrapped around him in a hug.

XXXXX

Cleaning up Gabe's mess was the same as ever. He fed Gabriel another biotic capsule, while he texted Ashe that they'd be down in a few minutes. Black sludge was all that remained of Gabe's tantrum, and Jack had been too freaked out to clean him up.

That was fair. To be honest, Jesse was freaking out as well.

" _Any luck finding your ring?"_  Ashe's message lit up his phone screen, and Jesse's stomach sank.

Gabe's engagement ring had gotten lost during the move, and it was nowhere to be found. He didn't think anyone would have any reason to take it. Ashe wouldn't, B.O.B. would have followed her example, and Jack would have addressed it. Ana was too nice to, and Angela wouldn't have ever touched it.

Meaning he likely lost it. And now his landlord had it.

With a heavy heart, he texted back.  _"No. lemme kno if the landlord knows anythin abt it. Even if s' just the pawn shop he lobbed it off to."_

" _We'll find it, Jesse."_  Ashe reassured.  _"And once we do, Imma teach folks what happens when they cross Deadlock."_

" _I'll be down in 5 for work. Gabe'll be joining us."_

" _We'll see you then."_  Jesse pocketed his phone, and sighed as he turned back to Gabe.

"Well, Gabe. Let's head to work." He put Gabriel's beanie on his head, and helped him into his wheelchair. Gabe was still a bit out of it, but he blinked awake as Jesse rubbed his beanie.

"Okay, love you, Jess." Gabriel mumbled sleepily, leaning up for a kiss.

"Love you too, Gabe." Jesse responded distractedly, giving him a thoughtless good morning kiss. His thinking came to a stop, and he immediately stood up straight. He looked down at Gabriel, who gave him a slightly smug smile.

"I've been waiting for you to do that." Gabriel preened, overly content with himself, as he adjusted himself in the wheelchair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ;) That's Gabe for you. Hopefully I can get the talk typed out within a reasonable amount of time. 
> 
> Hit my ass up on twitter, @harmicist - I love being yelled at and complaining a lot. I will be yelling the second any news about archives comes out.

**Author's Note:**

> If you really want to know what happens or about Gabe, just let me know! Either here in the comments, or you can find me on twitter @harmicist. 
> 
> Thank you for reading and I really do hope you enjoyed this!!!!


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